Far from combating social exclusion, widening participation policies often reinforce it

Dr Penny Jane Burke

Dr Penny Jane Burke said institutional categories such as "non-traditional" served only to estrange students from under-represented groups and reinforce feelings that they did not belong because they were seen as inferior to the norm - the 18-year-old A-level student.

Dr Burke said her study of the views of 23 mature students from access programmes suggested the emphasis on driving up standards was a barrier to widening participation.

"People are worried that by widening participation, we may be in danger of lowering standards and by implication these students are involved in this kind of thinking," said Dr Burke, who is herself a former participation student.

'Not academic'

There was also a snobbery over what access students wanted to achieve by going to university.

"The students felt that they were expected to gain qualifications leading to jobs, nothing more and were seen as practical, not intellectual, and outsiders in the academic world," said Dr Burke.

"Far from combating social exclusion, widening participation policies often reinforce it.

"As part of its welfare-to-work programme, national policy turns education into a training project to regenerate the economy and fails to address the reasons why access students want to learn," she said.

Dr Burke stressed her study was not against widening participation, but highlighted the need for further research and a change in policy.

"I'm not saying that the government isn't helping students - I think it's excellent that widening participation is now part of the discourse - but its policies are not getting at the nuances of real people's lives."