Delivering and Evaluating Participation after Access

Liz Austen is Professor of Higher Education Evaluation and Associate Dean Learning, Teaching and Student Success (College of Social Sciences & Arts) at Sheffield Hallam University.Colin McCaig is Professor of Higher Education Policy in the Sheffield Institute of Education at Sheffield Hallam University.

• Chapter 1. Introduction: Delivering and Evaluating Participation after Access: Higher Education in a Marketised System; Liz Austen and Colin McCaigChapter 2. Policy context: The political economy of access and success in the English market; Colin McCaig Chapter 3. Introducing the ‘Access and Participation’ and ‘Evaluation’ agenda; Naomi Clements Chapter 4. What do institutions do to support student success?; Liz Austen Chapter 5. How does financial support influence student success? Developing theory and evaluation; Elisabeth Moores, Liz Thomas, and Lizzy Woodfield Chapter 6. Inclusive Curriculum Pedagogy: Addressing educational inequalities for racially and ethnically minoritised students using Phenomenon-Based Learning principles; Sally Andrews, Kate Cuthbert, and Sue Lee Chapter 7. How do institutions evidence effectiveness via evaluation?; Liz Austen, Julian Crockford, and Colin McCaig Chapter 8. The challenges of measuring work-readiness and evaluating an intervention to address differential outcomes: A critical analysis; Iwi-Ugiagbe-Green, Simon Massey, and Muzammal Mann Chapter 9. An Evaluation of Dreams: Exploring the Assumption of a Participatory Evaluation of a Simulated Nursing Placement; Nathaniel Pickering, and Julian Crockford Chapter 10. Conclusion; Colin McCaig and Liz Austen

This book is an essential read not just for those working on widening access or student success, but anyone in higher education genuinely committed to providing opportunities for those from all backgrounds. As well as highlighting what could be done to improve the higher education experience of students from underrepresented and otherwise disadvantaged groups it points to the challenges in understanding what impact could and should mean where this work is concerned. This work must encompass all of what higher education providers do from what they teach and how they do it to how they and their student’s are funded. The Labour government elected in 2024 has said that access and success in higher education for those from underrepresented and otherwise disadvantaged groups it’s no 1 priority for higher education. This won’t be an easy commitment to meet by any means. Reading this book will help them achieve it.