Open doors, narrow corridors?

Across the globe, higher education institutions have long been a gateway to opportunity, a pathway to personal growth, and a catalyst for societal progress. Institutions have opened their doors wider, enabling students who have not traditionally accessed higher education to do so. Yet, once they have entered institutions, the corridors have often been narrow rather than inclusive, obstructing the journey for marginalised and underrepresented individuals. 

What do we mean by underrepresented groups? 

In an UK context, underrepresented or ‘WP’ groups often include people who are from areas of low higher education participation, low household income or low socioeconomic status, who are care-experienced or carers, disabled people, mature students, and people from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds, to name but a few ​(Office for Students, 2024)​.  

Internationally, the students who are underrepresented in higher education are, naturally, context dependent. For example, in Australia, target groups for widening participation include students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds, Indigenous peoples and disabled people (QUT, 2020).  

It is important to acknowledge the intersectionality that exists across these groups, and where possible we have highlighted this.  

Through this newly published rapid literature report, Open doors, narrow corridors?, part of our Member Benefit theme, 'Creating a culture for Strategic EDI Change', lies our effort to explore and understand the barriers faced by underrepresented groups, beyond the scope of traditional widening participation groups. In our report, we acknowledge that there are various institutional structures that exist to facilitate the success of underrepresented groups, and that these structures may vary across institutions, with some teams focussing on specific facets of student success and inclusion.  

Yet, there are other areas of institutional practice that could also support student inclusion but are not traditionally captured within student WP, access or success related plans. These include areas such as community and civic engagement, support for family and caring responsibilities and extra-curricular engagement, volunteering and paid work. By broadening our focus to include areas of work beyond institutional support structures, we hope to contribute to the existing knowledge about how higher education institutions (HEIs) can support post-entry inclusion of students, globally.  

Drawing from our personal experiences of previously working in widening participation teams within HE institutions, we understand the multifaceted nature of these challenges. Community and civic engagement, for instance, can serve as a bridge connecting underrepresented groups with educational opportunities. However, a lack of resources and support often hinder initiatives aimed at fostering community involvement. Similarly, family and caring responsibilities can present significant barriers, particularly for individuals balancing academic pursuits with caregiving duties. 

Extra-curricular activities, while enriching the student experience, may inadvertently perpetuate inequalities if access is not equitable. Students from underrepresented backgrounds may face financial constraints or lack of representation in extracurricular programmes, limiting their participation and networking opportunities. Moreover, paid and unpaid work commitments can pose challenges, especially for those juggling multiple responsibilities to support themselves or their families. Recognising these challenges, our work package endeavours to bridge the gap between traditional support structures and broader areas of inclusion. 

Limitations 

The literature review was commissioned as a ‘rapid’ literature review, as opposed to a ‘systematic’ literature review, and so there is likely to be key literature that may have been left out of this document. Further to this, it is important to acknowledge that this review started with very Western understandings of Widening Participation work. Even the term ‘Widening Participation’ is oftentimes not used in other global contexts, therefore both academic and grey have a skew towards work happening in the Global North. 

We have tried to mitigate by reaching out for comments and interviews from institutions elsewhere across the world. These contributions from institutions that wish to share their experiences, insights, and innovative approaches that support post-entry inclusion of underrepresented student groups will help inform case studies that we plan to collate and publish, in line with the benefits of sharing best practice across the sector.