The Temporal Disciplining of Doctoral Research in the Neoliberal Academy

The neoliberal agenda in higher education has led to expectations and targets of market-likeness in student enrolment and completion demographics through the widening participation agenda. However, the reality is that disadvantaged groups such as students with a disability and Indigenous students are still underrepresented, particularly in advanced research degrees. This disadvantage is compounded by the temporal disciplining imposed by bureaucratically-defined completion deadlines. Taking Australia as a paradigmatic case, this chapter explores the temporal disciplining of doctoral research in the broader context of neoTaylorism and the projectification of research. It argues that a care-inspired slowness is needed to counterbalance the harms created by the managerialist push for ‘timely' completion.

The Impact on French Upper Secondary Schools of Reforms Aiming to Improve Students’ Transition to Higher Education

For a long time, the French education system has been characterized by strong institutional disconnection between secondary education (enseignement secondaire) and higher education (enseignement supérieur). This situation has nevertheless started to change over the last 20 years as the “need-to-adapt” argument has been widely used to push for three sets of interrelated reforms with the official aim of improving student flows to, and readiness for, higher education (HE). The first reforms relate to the end-of-upper-secondary-school baccalauréat qualification and were carried out in two waves. The second set of reforms concerns educational guidance for transition from upper secondary school to HE, including widening participation policies targeting socially disadvantaged youths. Finally, the third set has established a national digital platform, launched in 2009, to manage and regulate HE applications and admissions. These reforms with strong neoliberal leanings have nevertheless been implemented within a system that remains profoundly conservative. Changes to the baccalauréat, to educational guidance, and to the HE admissions system have made only minor alterations to the conservative system of hierarchical tracks, both at the level of the lycée (upper secondary school) and in HE, thus strongly weakening their potential effects. Moreover, the reforms themselves combine neoliberal discourse and decisions with other perspectives and approaches aiming to preserve and even reinforce this conservative structure. This discrepancy is evident in the conflicting aims ascribed both to guidance and to the new online application and admissions platform, expected, on the one hand, to raise students’ ambitions and give them greater latitude to satisfy their wishes but also, on the other hand, to help them make “rational” choices in light of both their educational abilities and trajectories and their existing HE provision and job prospects. This mixed ideological and structural landscape is also the result of a significant gap in France between policy intentions and implementation at a local level, especially in schools. Several factors are responsible for this discrepancy: the fact that in order to ward off criticism and protest, reforms are often couched in very abstract terms open to multiple interpretations; the length and complexity of the reform circuit in a centralized educational system; the lack of administrative means through which to oversee implementation; teachers’ capacity to resist reform, both individually and collectively. This half-conservative, half-liberal educational regime is likely to increase inequalities across social and ethnoracial lines for two main reasons. The first is that the potential benefits of “universal” neoliberal policies promising greater choice and opportunity for all—and even of policies directly targeting working-class and ethnic minority students, such as widening participation schemes—are frequently only reaped by students in academic tracks, with a good school record, who are mostly upper- or middle-class and White. The second is that, under the traditional conservative regime, in addition to being the victims of these students’ advantages and strategies, working-class students also continue to be channeled and chartered toward educational tracks and then jobs located at the bottom of the educational and social hierarchy.

Access courses and their contribution to the widening participation agenda in the UK

Reasons for mental health nursing shortages in the UK are many and complex. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to fill vacant posts, while at the same time negatively impacting on the UK's international recruitment strategy. Whereas international recruitment is essential to reduce workforce shortages, it offers only a short-term solution and potentially leaves lower-income countries with increased nursing shortages themselves. This article considers that a long-term domestic approach to recruitment is needed to reduce future workforce deficits. It is argued that benefits of access courses are increased if delivered by the university directly, as a familiarity with systems, the campus and supportive networks are promoted, and the potential for targeted support is increased. Further research is needed to establish the benefits, but access courses delivered this way may provide a more sustainable solution to nursing workforce shortages in the UK and beyond.

Collaboration and co-production with Black, Asian and minority ethnic students: working in partnership with our students to inform and deliver access and participation practice

In recent years, the topic of UK-domiciled undergraduate students from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds not accessing, succeeding and progressing as well as their White peers in Higher Education (HE) has gained increased policy and media attention. Institutions are required to address gaps amongst student groups that are underrepresented within HE, including students from BAME backgrounds, through their Office for Students' (OfS) regulated Access and Participation Plan (APP). This paper offers specific examples of how Edge Hill University, a university in North West England, has begun to approach this work in the new regulatory environment. APPs now place an increased emphasis upon research informed practice, student engagement, consultation, and evaluation. This innovative practice article provides a detailed example of genuine collaboration and coproduction with students to develop and deliver APP work, and extends an earlier presentation delivered at the March 2021 Open University Access Participation and Success International Biennial Conference. In this article, the authors outline the development of a new Diversity Access Programme and a BAME Student Advisory Panel. The paper offers a reflective account of how APP leads, Widening Participation (WP) practitioners, evaluators and students can work together effectively in partnership to design and deliver WP initiatives.

Editorial: Special edition ‘Race and Ethnicity’

The articles in this special issue of Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning are based on presentations at a series of remote seminars organised by The Open University (UK), titled ‘Avoid Photocopying the past – re-designing HEIs to reduce inequitable outcomes for BAME students’. The first seminar (15 July 2020) proved so popular that parts 2 (6 October) and parts 3 (3 December) were added. The theme continued into Day 1 (of 4) of The Open University???s Access, Participation and Success (APS) Biennial International Conference held online in March 2021. This special edition therefore includes five articles which originated as presentations focused on research around race and ethnicity in higher education (HE).

Assessing The Public Health Benefits of Parkrun By Modelling Performance And Participation At Events In Scotland

Background: parkrun is a hugely successful public health initiative that encourages inactive people to exercise. The parkrun results database is likely to contain a wealth of potentially important public health information on the fitness benefits and participation patterns of parkrun, yet this resource has been ignored. The aim was to identify patterns in performance and attendance of participants at parkrun events in Scotland to enhance the future health benefits of parkrun through widening participation particularly by identifying features of events that overcome barriers to women taking part.Study design: The study conducted linear and binomial mixed models of age-graded performance, sex ratio and age of participants at parkrun events held in Scotland. Predictor variables were age, sex, parkrun ID number, number of runs, elevation gain, surface type and travelling time to the next nearest parkrun event. The data were generated from parkrun results pages for 56 events in Scotland. Results: There was a decline in the mean performance of participants at events, however individual performances improved over time. The sex ratio was male biased but the proportion of female participants has been increasing. Events in the most remote parts of Scotland had the lowest age graded performance scores and the highest proportion of female participants with the remotest events exhibiting a female bias in participation. Events on slower surfaces had a higher proportion of female participants.Conclusion: This study reports that parkrun events are becoming more inclusive with new participants being increasingly unfit women. In remoter parts of Scotland the traditional male bias in participation in sport has actually become a slight female bias revealing parkrun has seemingly overcome traditional barriers to female participation in sport. Events with slower surfaces had more female participants. Prioritising the creation of events at more remote locations and on slower surfaces could increase inclusivity and widen participation further. These findings could also help general practitioners prescribe those events that are most likely to benefit new participants making the parkrun practice initiative more effective. For example, women might be encouraged to attend traditionally slower events than men.