Bridges, Pathways and Transitions: International Innovations in Widening Participation

Bridges, Pathways and Transitions: International Innovations in Widening Participation shows that widening participation initiatives and policies have had a profound impact on improving access to higher education to historically marginalized groups of students from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.

The research presented provides a source of inspiration to students who are navigating disadvantage to succeed in higher education against the odds. There are stories of success in difficult circumstances, revealing the resilience and determination of individuals and collectives to fight for a place in higher education to improve chances for securing social mobility for next generations.

The book also reveals that more work and policy interventions are needed to further equalize the playing field between social groups. Governments need to address the entrenched structural inequalities, particularly the effects of poverty, that prevent more academically able disadvantaged students from participating in higher education on the basis of the circumstances of their birth.

Across the globe, social reproduction is far more likely than social mobility because of policies and practices that continue to protect the privilege of those in the middle and top of social structures. With the gap between rich and poor widening at a rate previously unseen, we need radical policies to equalize the playing field in fundamental ways.

Focuses on collaborations with schools, families, and communities Highlights tools and methods to aid in the creation of pathways, bridging initiatives into higher educationIncludes case studies that show how students are supported during the transition into high education systems

1. Introduction: Policy and Practice Challenges and Opportunities for Developing Widening Participation in the Global South and North
2. What is Widening Participation and Why Does it Matter?
3. Building Bridges: The Story Behind Australia’s Largest Widening Participation Collaboration
4. Supporting Indigenous Students Through the University Journey: The Elder in Residence Program
5. Creating Alternate Futures through Higher Education: The Refugee Mentoring Program
6. Widening Participation to under-represented and disadvantaged students: social identity and the barriers to higher education access in England
7. Access of Disadvantaged Students to Higher Education in Chile: Current Scenarios and Challenges
8. Widening Participation in Higher Education: Preparatory Education Program for Students from Ethnic Minority Backgrounds
9. Building a Foundation for Success? Foundation Programs in the Arab Gulf States using Qatar as a Case Study
10. Generating Strategies for Success: Understanding the Lived Experiences of Native American Adult Learners
11. Nepal’s educated non-elite: Re-evaluating state-provided higher education
12. What is being done? ‘Ubuntu’ in Student Support Programmes in Public Higher Education Institutions in South Africa
13. Tertiary Schooling Patterns and Disadvantaged Groups in Turkey
14. Understanding the Relative Value of Alternative Pathways in Postsecondary Education: Evidence from the State of Virginia