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From Access to Success: An Integrated Approach to Quality Higher Education Informed by Social Inclusion Theory and Practice

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Abstract

Equitable access, success and quality in higher education are examined from a variety of ideological perspectives. Quality is positioned as a complex generic concept while access and success are identified as key concepts in the social inclusion domain, supplemented by the concept of participation. The topic is approached through an integrative analysis of the theory and practice literature on social inclusion in higher education. After contextualising current higher education within economic globalisation, the notion of quality is uncoupled from the necessity of a neoliberal framing allowing broader interpretations arising from more inclusive ideologies. Access, participation and success are shown to represent degrees of social inclusion underpinned by a nested spectrum of ideologies — neoliberalism, social justice and human potential, respectively — with human potential ideology offering the most embracing perspective. Australian higher education is foregrounded, yet contextualised within European historical precedents and contemporary global issues.

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Notes

  1. The development of the theoretical framework informing this paper was undertaken by Gidley as part of a literature review on social inclusion in higher education initiated and funded by Dr. Leone Wheeler in the RMIT Learning Community Partnerships Group and Professor John Fien, Global Cities Research Institute. The topic of the 2009 IAU/Palgrave essay prize inspired Gidley to undertake further research to extend the literature review to meet the more global context of the paper theme. Hampson's editorial assistance helped to refine some aspects of the theory and Wheeler and Bereded-Samuel contributed practical insights from their extensive professional experience in university–community engagement.

  2. Ernst Boyer proposed four types of scholarship: the scholarship of discovery, the scholarship of integration, the scholarship of application and the scholarship of teaching (Boyer, 1990).

  3. ‘The Bologna Process aims to create a European Higher Education Area by 2010, in which students can choose from a wide and transparent range of high quality courses and benefit from smooth recognition procedures’. http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/educ/bologna/bologna_en.html.

  4. The latter ideology is reflected in the title of the recent IAU conference: ‘Associations, Networks, Alliances etc.: Making Sense of the Emerging Global Higher Education Landscape’ 2009 Conference of the International Association of Universities, IAU: For A Worldwide Higher Education Community, Mexico.

  5. The National CAMHS Support Service (NCSS) is sponsored by the Department of Health (DH) and Department for Education and Skills (DfES) with the aim of offering additional capacity to support the implementation of a comprehensive Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). The NCSS is part of the Care Services Improvement Partnership Children, Young People and Families national programme, which is delivered in the regions of England. http://www.csip.org.uk/~cypf/camhs/national-camhs-support-service-ncss.html.

  6. Neoliberalism can be differentiated from classic liberalism in its interest in the state enforcement of liberalism — an illiberal manoeuvre.

  7. Access and Success is a 5-year project to improve the access and successful participation of young people in post compulsory education and training through collaborative research and strategic action in partnership with schools in the western region of Melbourne.

  8. The Access to Success project in the USA was initiated in October 2007 by the National Association of System Heads (NASH) — an association of chief executives of the 52 college and university systems of public higher education in the United States and supported in part by grants from Lumina Foundation for Education and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. http://www2.edtrust.org/EdTrust/Press+Room/AccessToSuccessLaunch.htm.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Global Cities Research Institute, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, 3001, Victoria, Australia

    Jennifer M Gidley, Gary P Hampson & Leone Wheeler

  2. Victoria University, PO Box 14428, Melbourne, 8001, Victoria, Australia

    Elleni Bereded-Samuel

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  1. Jennifer M Gidley
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  2. Gary P Hampson
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  3. Leone Wheeler
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  4. Elleni Bereded-Samuel
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Additional information

This contribution is the prize-winning essay of the competition launched in September 2009 by IAU and Palgrave. The theme of the competition was Equitable Access, Success and Quality – three essential ingredients or three mutually exclusive concepts for higher education development? IAU, together with Palgrave, would like to thank all those who participated, as well as the jury, and to once again offer our congratulations to the authors of the winning article.

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Gidley, J., Hampson, G., Wheeler, L. et al. From Access to Success: An Integrated Approach to Quality Higher Education Informed by Social Inclusion Theory and Practice. High Educ Policy 23, 123–147 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1057/hep.2009.24

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