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This paper addresses the issue of the impact of expansion and differentiation on widening access to higher education. In particular, it considers the impact of the growing importance of full-time short-cycle higher education in Scotland’s colleges of further and higher education, the progression pathways which have now been established from these programmes to bachelor degrees in the Scottish universities and the policy initiatives to strengthen these pathways. It concludes that while these developments have helped promote inclusion, they have also resulted in some outcomes which can best be understood as diversion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Widening access to higher education (HE) has been an important policy objective in Scotland over the last twenty years. While there is evidence that high levels of participation have been achieved, and some evidence of reduction in inequalities in participation rates among young people entering higher education, there is also evidence of persisting inequalities, and of patterns of differentiation and stratification. As a result there is evidence that, with the development of mass higher education in Scotland, a stratified system of higher education has emerged. Furthermore there is evidence that these patterns of stratification are being maintained over time, despite the policies which are designed to widen access. This paper will review the evidence regarding the nature and extent of these patterns of stratification, and briefly consider the policies which are designed to tackle this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the development of work-based learning programmes within higher education in the UK. It explores how ‘partnership’ with employers came to be seen as a central aspect of this new form of provision. However, we suggest that this emphasis on partnership has been problematic. We focus, in particular, on three areas of concern. Firstly, the limited evidence that employers wish to engage in these sorts of relationships with universities. Secondly, the problems arising from the different cultures of the potential partners and, in particular, different understandings of ‘learning’ and ‘knowledge’. Thirdly, the emergence of the quality assurance agenda within higher education, which is reducing the influence of employers in these programmes. We conclude that the emphasis placed on partnership in the policy and practice literature may well be hindering the more widespread development of work-based learning in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concepts of learner identities and learning careers have recently acquired popularity as ways of analysing participation in learning among young adults. They paper presents a conceptual challenge to unilinear approaches to the concept of learning careers. It draws on empirical data ,gathered during a study of new entrants to Scottish further education colleges, and illustrates the analysis through two biographical studies. It argues that learner identities can be fragile, contingent and vulnerable to external changes, and indeed can incorporate elements of hostility to education, as well as a degree of denial of responsibility even on the part enthusiastic learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]