In Sweden, there is an ambition that higher education should be accessible for all people who have the ability to study. Universities should work towards widening participation and from the 1st of January 2015 lack of accessibility can be a form of discrimination (Prop.2001/02:15, s.18 f.; 1kap. 5 § stycke 4 HL; DO, 2015). The question is if the ambition of widening participation and an education free from discrimination correspond with how the students with disabilities experience their study situation?  The result of this study shows that the students use different types of supports in their study situation and that the satisfaction with them varies. The support that the students value the most is personal support which is also the support that the students wants more of.  One quarter of the respondents, 25 % (37/148), answered that they had experienced some form of discrimination. When it comes to lack of accessibility 45 % (67/148) of the respondents had experienced this, which was connected to lack of support, lack of information, lack of accessibility in the physical environment or in the study situation, lack of understanding and time issues.

The aim of this study was to produce a grounded theory to describe the experiences of international students living in the UK and studying in a British university, and to understand and explain their behavioural responses to those experiences. Eighteen postgraduate international students were interviewed at a university in the south-west of England and the data was analysed using classic grounded theory methodology. The theory proposes that international students’ two biggest concerns are in regard to their English language skills and their detachment from home students. Students felt that their language skills were inadequate and they perceived themselves to be disadvantaged because of having to operate in a second language. They felt ignored when they attempted to reach out to home students and as a result they turned to co-nationals and recreated their home environment. International students were surprised at the size of the challenge they faced when they took up their studies and had to work hard to bridge the gap that existed between their academic and sociocultural skills and those needed in the UK. International students provided emotional, practical and academic support to each other but the academic support they offered to each other was not always good quality. International students engaged in a process of identity change during their stay in the UK which reflected the multiple and changing nature of their identities and during which they gained the skills they needed to be academically successful.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study explores practices that enable African doctoral students to manage their experiences in order to make progress and eventually complete their doctoral study at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. The study is informed by previous research into doctoral education, which enumerates barriers to doctoral study completion and students’ completion strategies, as well as by Bourdieu’s theory of practice. It places a focus on students’ academic achievement practices, and how these are informed by students’ dispositions, cultural capital and experiences during their studies. The conceptual-analytical framework developed for the study attempts to bring together existing findings of research into the field of doctoral study and insights from Bourdieu’s theory of practice. It posits that students who seek to attain completion of their doctoral study have agency and resources that they strategically employ within their social and academic environment and, specifically, within the field of doctoral study. It foregrounds doctoral students’ ‘resources’ such as motivation, work ethic, tenacity, and other personal characteristics, and their personal and familial backgrounds, as well as their relevant skills and competences, which all help to shape and inform their learning and completion practices. The study focuses on African doctoral students at the University of the Western Cape. It employs a qualitative design using a case study approach that involves in-depth, semi-structured interviews with students to collect relevant data. The sample consists of 18 African doctoral students from across all faculties of the university. For the purpose of the study, African students are identified as students who self-identify as African, whether they are South African nationals (irrespective of official population group) or students from the African continent (international students). They are purposefully selected to enable the study of a group of students that continues to be under-represented in doctoral studies in South Africa. The analysis of the qualitative data involves narrative analysis and critical interpretation. The study finds that using Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, cultural capital, and field can help us to establish and better understand the practices that doctoral students employ as strategies to overcome barriers that they encounter during their studies. The study shows that African doctoral students’ completion practices are strongly influenced by specific aspects of their habitus and cultural capital, which are determined as relevant by the field. The study focuses on aspects of habitus such as motivation, level of family education and status, cultural beliefs, values and home language, as relevant sources of academically relevant habitus. It also shows that the socio-economic class, status and occupation of core family members provide a bigger motivation for completion of their doctoral study than cultural capital. In relation to cultural capital in particular, the study thus emphasises matters such as prior academic learning; attitudes, skills and competences learnt in the academic workplace (with particular reference to lecturer-participants of the study); an understanding of the university and of the nature of doctoral study; and learning from the supervisor, other academic and research colleagues, peers and role models. Three attributes of the field of doctoral study are shown to be most relevant to completion: (1) the ‘nature of doctoral study’ and related aspects such as the choice of the research topic, thesis writing, the use of the English language, and writing and presentation of work in progress; (2) the relationship with the supervisor and aspects of the supervision process; and (3) funding. By focusing on the practices of lecturer-participants in particular, the study argues for a model of doctoral study that conceives of doctoral candidates as ‘junior staff members’ rather than merely as students, and thus employs them in a contractual relationship that involves elements of work and study. Finally, it is argued that there is much complexity in the dynamic interaction of the concepts in Bourdieu’s ‘mathematical model’. In particular, it is shown that there are dynamics by which deficiencies in the field and in the resources embodied by participants are being compensated by means of other aspects of the field, cultural capital and habitus and with new learning and adaptation to generate practices that are beneficial to completion. A number of findings also diverge from Bourdieu’s arguments. In particular, the study notes that African doctoral students’ habitus is derived from a wider influence than primarily the nuclear family (especially parents), since sibling influence, the influence of extended family members (especially well-educated ones) and a wider social network are important factors

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Education is widely acknowledged as a catalyst for social change and progress within society. Contact theory supports this notion and suggests that fostering interactions between individuals from different groups can effectively reduce prejudice and promote peace. Building upon a unique set of data, gathered from 18 semi-structured interviews with students, parents, and relevant organizations, this study aims to investigate the experiences of students within the 'two schools under one roof' system in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Specifically, it seeks to understand whether this system has any potential implications on the intergroup relations between Bosniak and Croat students and how their attitudes might differ. Recognizing the limited attention given to student perspectives and integrated educational efforts from organizations in BiH, this research aims to address this research gap and contribute to this field of knowledge.  The main findings show that there is a strong desire amongst students for further integration of education and a need for a unified curriculum. Findings also suggest that the school and external actors, except relevant organizations, show no support for such integrative actions. The paper furthermore argues for an urgent need to modernize the current schooling system in Bosnia and Herzegovina by incorporating integrative practices and fostering community-building projects and also calls for urgent actions from policymakers.

Digital technology has had an increasing impact on higher education and shifted the way of teaching and learning in a fundamental way. The outbreak of Covid-19 urges higher education to shift from traditional learning to digital learning and this made a big change in the education system and the way education is being delivered to students worldwide. Universities and higher education institutes had to use various digital platforms with numerous capabilities and approaches to facilitate learning. In their shift towards digitalized online platforms, higher education institutions ignored important aspects of digitalization in perspective with student’s learning experience. Therefore, this research is going to implement an exploratory aim to define the features and comprehend how higher education can expand student’s learning experience via digitalization by implementing and maintaining dynamic essential technologies in their system in future to expand student’s learning experience. Our finding shows that digitalization does have an impact on the learning experiences of students, and students are getting more reliable on these technologies and wish to continue their studies in a hybrid manner.

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In California community colleges, students of color reach educational milestones and culminating outcomes disproportionately less often than their peers. In the past decade, the state has committed renewed energy to refining student equity plan regulations requiring individual colleges to identify and develop strategies to close such gaps. This dissertation sought to focus on the intended beneficiaries of these efforts, asking how students themselves define and experience equity. Using semistructured, narrative interviews to explore the experiences of nine students of color at a California community college, this qualitative case was supported by institutional documents, participant observation, and interviews with college personnel. This inquiry was conceptually framed by Dowd and Bensimon’s (2015) insights on equity’s meaning as a standard of justice, California student equity plan success indicators, and Yosso’s (2005) community cultural wealth. Students’ stories wove tapestries of struggles and triumphs. Their engagement with the college and coursework was often mediated by the external circumstances and internal tumult of their lived experiences and hurdles that derived from college’s personnel or processes. Alternately, students found informational, material, social, and motivational resources in their home networks, college programs, relationships with personnel, and their own recognition of personal growth. Students’ experiences with the college denoted equity by its presence and its absence. While affirmatively identifying instances of caring, validation, and growth, less positive experiences revealed the extent to which equity remains aspirational. These findings give voice to the asymmetries between policy/regulatory efforts to redress entrenched educational inequities and the realities of students’ lived experience.

Yes / The presentation provides information on the results of the on-line student and staff surveys that addressed the final year engineering project experience. The work was performed as part of the Royal Academy of Engineering's National HE STEM Programme. The presentation was made at Outduction's National Conference at Kew Gardens. Outduction was a three-year collaborative project between Kingston University London and University of Bradford, funded by the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme, which aimed to improve understanding of the experience of students in their final year of undergraduate study. / Royal Academy of Engineering, National HE STEM Programme