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Fair access and widening participation currently occupy a prominent position in the UK higher education agenda, but these terms remain ambiguous. In this paper we identify two prominent strands of policy in the government's approach to access and the widening of participation and contrast these with a third, more progressive perspective. The academic strand seeks to attract 'gifted and talented' young people into an unreformed higher education system. The second strand, which we term the utilitarian approach, posits a need for reform. However, this is undertaken largely to meet the requirements of employers and the economy. In contrast, a transformative approach values diversity and focuses on creating a system of higher education that does not place the burden of change upon potential entrants. This framework is used to explore some of the implications of the government's White Paper The future of higher education. First, the purpose of higher education is discussed, with particular reference to the distinction between economic and social objectives. Second, the government's view of the structure of the higher education sector is examined, by scrutinizing the notion of institutional differentiation and the role of the access regulator. We conclude that within a more differentiated higher education sector different aspects of the access discourse will become dominant in different types of institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the Swann Report in Great Britain in 2005. The issues investigated by Swann remains resonating both in Great Britain and beyond and the significance and the legacy of the report remain subjects of significant debate. There were 51 papers presented over the two days conference at the University of Birmingham. The subject of Gary McCulloch's article is about class and more particularly the education of the middle age class. Christine Mayer's article is providing details on the changing educational practices for girls and women between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries in Germany.

This paper draws on an oral history project which focuses on former coalminers' experiences of education and training. It presents the stories of five participants, all of whom undertook significant programmes of post-compulsory education during or immediately after leaving the coal industry and achieved a degree of social mobility over the course of their working lives. The paper compares and contrasts their experiences with those which now exist in Britain's former coalmining communities which, it is argued, have been substantively attenuated over time, especially for young men. Whilst it is evident that individual choice and motivation can play an important role in helping (or hindering) young people's journeys through education and employment, the central argument of the paper is that individual labour market success lies at the intersection of structure and agency – although the data presented also demonstrate the extent to which opportunities available to young men in the former coalfields have been diminished by de-industrialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive science-informed approaches have gained considerable influence in education in the UK and internationally, but not much is known about how teachers perceive cognitive science-informed strategies or enact them within the contexts of their everyday classrooms. In this paper, we discuss the perceptions and experiences of cognitive science-informed strategies of 13 teachers in England. The paper critically explores how the teachers understood and used cognitive science-informed strategies in their teaching, their views of the benefits and challenges for different subjects and groups of learners, and their reflections on supporting factors and barriers for adopting the strategies in their schools. The teachers' accounts illustrate some of the many complexities of adopting cognitive science-informed approaches in real-life educational settings. Drawing on their narratives, the paper emphasises the importance of acknowledging different contextual dimensions and the dynamic interactions between them to understand when and how teachers enact cognitive science-informed approaches in their classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines responses to the trend for increasing participation in tertiary education, linking developments in higher education with those in apprenticeship systems, in Australia and the United Kingdom. In both sectors, expansion proceeded for several decades, but was robustly criticised in both countries. The expansion of access to these two forms of tertiary education, therefore, was contested and potentially precarious. The paper finds, through analysis of official data, that participation in higher education and in apprenticeship was actually almost static, or fell, in both countries in the 2010s. Yet criticism of expansion continued in media commentary during this decade. The paper both explains and takes issue with the arguments against expansion, which have been influential in both sectors. It discusses some ways forward to understand the phenomenon better, and also the need to address the problems caused by the restriction of opportunities. Comparative analysis between the two sectors has not previously been undertaken. It is argued in the paper that such analysis enriches the theoretical lenses through which expansion of access may be viewed, and that it may suggest avenues for future research, and perhaps, for advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on developments relevant to education in Great Britain as of October 1973. Nigel Grant, reader in education at the University of Edinburgh, joined the Editorial Board of "Comparative Education" magazine. The eight session of the Standing Conference of European Ministers of Education was held in June 1973, which focused on "The Educational Needs of the 16-19 Age Group." UNESCO released its latest publication "Present Problems in the Democratization of Secondary and Higher Education." The Schools Council and the Standing Conference on University Entrance published the Working Paper 46, entitled "16-19: Growth and Response, 2. Examination Structure" and Working Paper 47, "Preparation for Degree Courses."

Background: General practice is increasingly used as a learning environment in undergraduate medical education in the UK. Aim: The aim of this project was to identify, summarise and synthesise research about undergraduate medical education in general practice in the UK. Methods: We systematically identified studies of undergraduate medical education within a general practice setting in the UK from 1990 onwards. All papers were summarised in a descriptive report and categorised into two in-depth syntheses: a quantitative and a qualitative in-depth review. Results: 169 papers were identified, representing research from 26 UK medical schools. The in-depth review of quantitative papers (n = 7) showed that medical students learned clinical skills as well or better in general practice settings. Students receive more teaching, and clerk and examine more patients in the general practice setting than in hospital. Patient satisfaction and enablement are similar whether a student is present or not in a consultation, however, patients experience lower relational empathy. Two main thematic groups emerged from the qualitative in-depth review (n = 10): the interpersonal interactions within the teaching consultation and the socio-cultural spaces of learning which shape these interactions. The GP has a role as a broker of the interactions between patients and students. General practice is a socio-cultural and developmental learning space for students, who need to negotiate the competing cultures between hospital and general practice. Lastly, patients are transient members of the learning community, and their role requires careful facilitation. Conclusions: General practice is as good, if not better, than hospital delivery of teaching of clinical skills. Our meta-ethnography has produced rich understandings of the complex relationships shaping possibilities for student and patient active participation in learning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Vaccines and treatments produced during the global coronavirus crisis demonstrated the importance of university research and teaching. There was widespread celebration of university–industry partnerships and collaborations across disciplines and geographical locations. However, simultaneously, higher education institutions in England faced serious financial and organisational challenges throughout the pandemic, which has implications for the relationship between teaching and research, for who undertakes each, and for the students' experience of teaching and learning (some of whom become the next generation of researchers). The rapid movement to online learning created further tensions within an already demoralised, precarious and divided workforce. This paper considers the potential social good of universities' two core missions, research and teaching in a post-pandemic world, exploring the inherently political nature of the link, as well as its encoded inequalities and dysfunctions. Drawing on documentary and secondary data analysis, this paper explores, first, the long-standing sectoral and institutional discrepancies through analysing trends in student recruitment rates and research funding. Second, it investigates how student and staff experiences of the link between research and teaching were changing in the pandemic, pointing to substantive equity issues in how the pandemic response affected access to research opportunities and to research-led teaching. The paper argues that a more equitable and inclusive university that appreciates the research-teaching nexus and is flexible and collaborative in nature is key to contribute to tackling global and local challenges, such as environmental destruction, climate change, conflict and socio-economic inequities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the summer of 2014, Professor Mike Collins – one of the four founding members of the Leisure Studies (LS) Association – submitted a paper to LS that offered a retrospective review of the first 30 years of the journal (1982–2012). Sadly, whilst the paper was under review, Professor Collins passed away. Mike’s commentaries have always been significant; we include this piece in this particular issue of the journal because it underpins the range of articles we have selected that we feel address some of the central tenets of ‘leisure’. Held alongside the Editors introduction, this article speaks as much as anything else to the state of the field, its futures and its potentialities. Serving as a companion piece that looks to the multiple pasts, genealogies and histories of leisure (and indeed LS), we, the Editors, offer below a necessarily abridged and posthumous version of Professor Collins’ original submission to the journal. Any omissions, errors, mis-representations and mis-understandings are the result of our own editorial hand for which we unreservedly apologise. We hope we have been able to keep the spirit, critique and engaging style that, no doubt, Mike would have presented in a final version of this manuscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergency legislation introduced internationally since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic saw the closure of all levels of educational settings and a shift to remote teaching. Drawing lessons from an independent child rights impact assessment (CRIA) in Scotland, United Kingdom, this paper reviews the impact of COVID-19 measures on children and young people's rights to, and experiences of, education during the current crisis. Findings highlight that while measures sought to preserve the best interests of children and their basic rights to safety, a distinct lack of consultation on the impacts of the measures undermined the interdependency and indivisibility of children's human rights. Three human rights principles – participation and inclusion, non-discrimination, and mutual accountability of family and the State – were identified as being particularly significant in this assessment. Looking forward, findings point to the need for extending the range of perspectives involved in child rights impact assessments in times of crisis – where human rights are at even greater risk of being breached – and the significance of a children's rights-based perspective for re-imagining education altogether. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]