<h2>Sammanfattning</h2><p><strong>S</strong>yftet med denna uppsats var att ge en bild av hur ett antal studie- och karriärvägledare inom universitet/högskola förhåller sig till begreppet breddad rekrytering.</p><p>Uppsatsen ville också visa vad en högskola och ett universitet har för strategier för att bredda sin rekrytering och om man medvetet använder sig av studie- och karriärvägledning för detta ändamål.</p><p>Metoden var kvalitativ och resultaten byggde på intervjuer av tio studievägledare fördelade på en högskola och ett universitet, samt två personer som arbetar övergripande med breddad rekrytering på dessa lärosäten. Det som framkom är att studievägledarna överlag anser att breddad rekrytering är en viktig uppgift som ingår i deras yrkesverksamhet, vidare att vägledningen är mer psykologiskt än socialt inriktad, på så sätt att vägledarna fokuserar mer på psykologiska aspekter som t ex studentens intressen, värderingar och förmågor snarare än den sociala kontext studenten befinner sig i t ex klasstillhörighet eller genus. Det finns inslag av processtänkande men fortfarande mycket av "trait and factor" tänkande.<strong> </strong>Högskolan/ universitetet anser att studievägledning är en viktig verksamhet och använder sig delvis av den för att bredda sin rekrytering, men kunskapen om vad vägledning är och kan användas till känns delvis outvecklad.</p><p>En framtidsvision är att vägledning har mer av samhällsförbättrande karaktär. Vägledaren skulle då vara en person som uppmuntrar till val utanför normen: Gränsöverskridande val.<strong> </strong></p> / <p> </p><h2>Abstract</h2><p>The purpose of this thesis was to give a picture of how a number of student counsellors at the university look on their commission in the perspective of widening recruitment.</p><p>The thesis also showed what strategies the universities have to widen their recruitment and of how to use counselling for this purpose.</p><p>The method was qualitative and the result was founded on interviews with ten student counsellors from two different universities and from two persons who work overall with widening recruitment and diversity. This study shows that student counsellors regard widening recruitment as an important task in their work. It emerged under the interviews that counselling is more psychological than social, which means that the counsellors focus more on factors like interests, values and competence rather than social context with factors like social class and gender. There are elements of trait and factor thinking as well as a great deal of<strong> </strong>process thinking. The university regards student counselling as an important activity and is using it for widening recruitment, but the knowledge of  it and its use is somewhat undeveloped.</p><p>A vision for the future is that the counsellor has more the task of a social reformer. The counsellor would then be the one who encourages the student for choices beyond the norms.</p>

<p>The aim of this study is to investigate the discourses of widening recruitment to higher education in some political documents from the 21st century. The scientific method applied is critical discourse analysis as developed by Norman Fairclough. This implies the analyses of the actual texts, the social practice as well as the discursive practice, i.e. the conditions under which the texts are produced, distributed and consumed.</p><p>The major results include four discourses: a post-modern discourse, a neoliberal economic discourse, a political discourse of multi-culturalism and a modern discourse with its roots in the 20th century’s discussions about social imbalance in recruitment to higher education. The material shows a discursive struggle between ways of constructing widening recruitment and underrepresented groups, as well as the hegemonic, implicit conviction that higher education is advantegous.</p> / <p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka vilka berättelser om breddad rekrytering som finns i några politiska dokument från 2000-talet. Jag använder kritisk diskursanalys så som den utvecklats av Norman Fairclough. Det innebär analyser av såväl text, som social praktik och diskursiv praktik, som innefattar villkor för produktion, distribution och konsumtion av texter.</p><p>De huvudsakliga resultaten visar en diskursordning som innehåller fyra diskurser: en postmodern diskurs, en neoliberal ekonomisk diskurs, en politisk diskurs om mångkulturalism och en modern diskurs med rötter i 1900-talets diskussioner om social snedrekrytering. Materialet visar också en diskursiv kamp mellan olika sätt att konstituera breddad rekrytering och under-representerade grupper, såväl som en outtalad, gemensam övertygelse om det fördelaktiga med högre utbildning.</p>

Sammanfattning Syftet med denna uppsats var att ge en bild av hur ett antal studie- och karriärvägledare inom universitet/högskola förhåller sig till begreppet breddad rekrytering. Uppsatsen ville också visa vad en högskola och ett universitet har för strategier för att bredda sin rekrytering och om man medvetet använder sig av studie- och karriärvägledning för detta ändamål. Metoden var kvalitativ och resultaten byggde på intervjuer av tio studievägledare fördelade på en högskola och ett universitet, samt två personer som arbetar övergripande med breddad rekrytering på dessa lärosäten. Det som framkom är att studievägledarna överlag anser att breddad rekrytering är en viktig uppgift som ingår i deras yrkesverksamhet, vidare att vägledningen är mer psykologiskt än socialt inriktad, på så sätt att vägledarna fokuserar mer på psykologiska aspekter som t ex studentens intressen, värderingar och förmågor snarare än den sociala kontext studenten befinner sig i t ex klasstillhörighet eller genus. Det finns inslag av processtänkande men fortfarande mycket av "trait and factor" tänkande. Högskolan/ universitetet anser att studievägledning är en viktig verksamhet och använder sig delvis av den för att bredda sin rekrytering, men kunskapen om vad vägledning är och kan användas till känns delvis outvecklad. En framtidsvision är att vägledning har mer av samhällsförbättrande karaktär. Vägledaren skulle då vara en person som uppmuntrar till val utanför normen: Gränsöverskridande val. / Abstract The purpose of this thesis was to give a picture of how a number of student counsellors at the university look on their commission in the perspective of widening recruitment. The thesis also showed what strategies the universities have to widen their recruitment and of how to use counselling for this purpose. The method was qualitative and the result was founded on interviews with ten student counsellors from two different universities and from two persons who work overall with widening recruitment and diversity. This study shows that student counsellors regard widening recruitment as an important task in their work. It emerged under the interviews that counselling is more psychological than social, which means that the counsellors focus more on factors like interests, values and competence rather than social context with factors like social class and gender. There are elements of trait and factor thinking as well as a great deal of process thinking. The university regards student counselling as an important activity and is using it for widening recruitment, but the knowledge of  it and its use is somewhat undeveloped. A vision for the future is that the counsellor has more the task of a social reformer. The counsellor would then be the one who encourages the student for choices beyond the norms.

The aim of this study is to investigate the discourses of widening recruitment to higher education in some political documents from the 21st century. The scientific method applied is critical discourse analysis as developed by Norman Fairclough. This implies the analyses of the actual texts, the social practice as well as the discursive practice, i.e. the conditions under which the texts are produced, distributed and consumed. The major results include four discourses: a post-modern discourse, a neoliberal economic discourse, a political discourse of multi-culturalism and a modern discourse with its roots in the 20th century’s discussions about social imbalance in recruitment to higher education. The material shows a discursive struggle between ways of constructing widening recruitment and underrepresented groups, as well as the hegemonic, implicit conviction that higher education is advantegous. / Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka vilka berättelser om breddad rekrytering som finns i några politiska dokument från 2000-talet. Jag använder kritisk diskursanalys så som den utvecklats av Norman Fairclough. Det innebär analyser av såväl text, som social praktik och diskursiv praktik, som innefattar villkor för produktion, distribution och konsumtion av texter. De huvudsakliga resultaten visar en diskursordning som innehåller fyra diskurser: en postmodern diskurs, en neoliberal ekonomisk diskurs, en politisk diskurs om mångkulturalism och en modern diskurs med rötter i 1900-talets diskussioner om social snedrekrytering. Materialet visar också en diskursiv kamp mellan olika sätt att konstituera breddad rekrytering och under-representerade grupper, såväl som en outtalad, gemensam övertygelse om det fördelaktiga med högre utbildning.

Tanzania is among the poorest countries in the world, with most of its population living in rural areas. Like most other developing countries, rural households' access to financial services is very limited. The government has adopted series of economic reform measures since mid-1980s that include financial liberalization. Liberalization of the financial sector facilitated participation of private financial institutions, restructuring of public financial institutions and privatization, elimination of interest rate controls, credit allocation and targeting. In addition, the role of the Bank of Tanzania in supervision and regulation of financial institutions was strengthened. Following the privatization of the financial sector, the number of financial service providers increased and diversified, which include commercial banks, development banks, insurance and social security funds, and capital markets. The role of the central bank was re-defined and strengthened in terms of price stability, supervision and regulation. Although there is an increase in financial sector service providers and products, rural households' access to financial services did not improve. To the contrary access to formal financial services is diminishing significantly, hence making poverty reduction initiatives more difficult. This study analyzed constraints to access to rural financial services, examined its impact on rural households' livelihoods, and recommended appropriate financial sector development strategies. The data for the study were collected from various sources - both primary and secondary. Primary data were collected from selected thirteen villages in Babati and government offices in the district through interviews, focus group discussions, questionnaire, and observation. Secondary information was gathered from documentary sources in the form of reports, records and review of literature. A combination of analytical tools was used - qualitative and quantitative. The study observed that history of rural finance in Tanzania is associated with colonialization of Tanganyika. The German colonial administration was the first to introduce establishment of modern commercial banking in the country in 1905 when the Deutsche Ostafrikanische bank opened a branch in Dar es Salaam. The British colonial administration, after the defeat of Germans in World War I, promoted establishment of commercial banks in Tanganyika in order to support commercialization of the economy. Consequently, German banks were replaced and commercial bank branches were established in other parts of the country. The independent government undertook massive re-organization of the financial sector and much attention was put on agricultural credit. Agricultural credit was organized through specialized agricultural credit organizations that corroborated with state owned commercial banks. However, the co-operative movement were assigned important role in credit administration on the ground as they are closer to the beneficiaries. The financial structure after independence up to the 1990s, when reforms were ushered in, is characterized by state owned financial institutions with pervasive interference. Credit was directed on the basis of the government priorities with little regard to credit worthiness analysis. The National Bank of Commerce (NBC) and Co-operative and Rural Development Bank (CRDB) were the dominant banks that implemented the government monetary policy. Emphasis was put on credit and savings mobilization was neglected. The CRDB operated mostly on managing donor funds meant for rural development. Liberalization of the financial sector was introduced through the Banking and Financial Institutions Act (BAFIA) of 1991 to address the weaknesses observed in the financial sector. It was envisaged to improve access to financial services through enhanced competition, increased and diversified financial products and providers, and improved integration of the financial system. However, assessment of the impact of the financial liberalization has mixed results. While there are distinct expansion in financial institutions, products and services; these are more concentrated in urban areas and accessed mostly by wealthy clients. Consequently, rural households' access to finance is diminishing. On the other hand, most financial institutions continue to employ traditional banking approaches - of insistence on collateral, preference for less risky category of clients, bias towards large loans, and bureaucratic procedures in providing loans. Besides, there are limited initiatives in product innovation, design of appropriate delivery mechanisms, and high interest rates spreads that discouraged potentials borrowers and depositors. As a result of poor access to financial services, most households have strengthened self-financing mechanisms through the informal arrangements. Although, the semi-formal - especially member based financial institutions and some Financial NGOs (FiNGOs) are attempting to correct the financial imbalances, their outreach, products and services are still limited. While there are improvement in supervision and regulation of the financial sector, it must be noted that prudential regulation and supervisions as part of the financial infrastructure if not carefully used, will undermine the efficiency of the financial market. The study concludes that rural households need a variety of financial products that include savings facilities, loans, insurance, leasing, and means of transfer payments. The degree of demand for these products is, however, determined by household's level of poverty, household size, level of education and skills, life cycle needs, and local market opportunities. However, financial sector reforms had little impact on households' livelihoods. Its implementation is associated with an increase in inequalities and poverty. Besides, there is a reduced funding as well as investment in agriculture, which forms the key sector of the economy. Consequently, the performance of the agricultural sector has been declining although its contribution to GDP is still significant. Assessing the supply and demand for rural financial services, it is concluded that rural areas are hardly served by banks hence limiting access to financial services. Prior to liberalization, government owned financial institutions provided limited financial services to rural areas organized through co-operatives and specialized credit agencies. CRDB was responsible for organization of credit for farm inputs, while NBC provided crop finance. In addition, CRDB also facilitated rural development programmes through donor funds. With the liberalization of the financial sector - co-operatives have collapsed, development banks are no longer active, and commercial banks have withdrawn from serving rural areas, thus creating a "supply gap" that is being replaced by informal finance. Furthermore, the study observed that demands for financial services is determined by age of the borrower, household size, and distance from a financial institution, the cost of borrowing that include loan transaction costs plus interest rate charged, bank procedures and conditions, policy and regulatory framework and institutional and infrastructural conditions. The study recommends the following: (i) Continued efforts for establishment of supportive macroeconomic and sectoral policies - financial, fiscal, monetary & rural development - and legal and regulatory framework that facilitates the growth of the rural financial markets, (ii) A facilitative intervention by the government in the development of the financial markets that addresses the national poverty reduction development objective through economic growth is required. The desired actions are those that focus on improvement in demand for financial services, reduced bureaucratic banking conditions, reduced transactions costs, improved infrastructure, and reduction of other structural bottlenecks limiting access to financial services, (iii) Development of appropriate financial institutions and products relevant for the rural sector requires government guidance through policy, development of appropriate financial infrastructure (legal, regulation and information), and incentive mechanisms. (iv) Intervention by the government in institutional and infrastructural development is required so as to facilitate the functioning of markets. There must be purposive investment strategy that supports development of the public infrastructure - such as transport and communication, electricity, security system, and research and development. Institutional development - judiciary machinery, credit bureaus, and property rights and business registry are required. Furthermore, training and capacity building so as to change peoples' mindsets concerning loans and savings mobilization, and (v) There is a need for building up a "New Role" for financial institutions. Financial institutions need to revisit their financial terms and conditions in favor of the development of RFMs, especially in terms of bank conditions, interest rate spreads, demand for collateral, and requirements for addressing the needs of the poor and rural population, Furthermore, financial institutions need to become more innovative in developing new products and services, improvement in organization of rural financial institutions, delivery mechanisms, and establishment of the institutional framework for integration of MFIs into the national financial system in the country. The following areas require further studies: (i) development of realistic rural development strategy that covers, among others, the development of the financial markets, (ii) institutionalization of the rural property ownership rights in order to establish how these can be used productively, through say mortgage, collateral, and/or sale for cash income, and (iii) Mechanisms for enforcement of loan repayments in rural areas - especially the lessons from informal operators. Experiences have shown that under informal credit arrangements, there are few default cases as opposed to formal commercial credit practices. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)

The purpose of this essay is to identify functional shifts and semantic changes in the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game Lord of the Rings Online. The focus is on new uses of established terms in Standard English and the intent is to see how the word formation processes work in an online gaming environment, and identify the possible reasons behind them. Due to the lack of previous studies of language in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, the aim is to provide some insight into some of the language developments that occur in such an environment. A quantitative method has been utilised in order to distinguish patterns, and the material, in the form of chat logs, has been gathered from Lord of the Rings Online. The chat logs have then been used to create a corpus, and, from this point, a qualitative method has been employed. The corpus has been thoroughly analysed for the words which have undergone functional shifts and/or semantic changes, and a selection of these words are presented and discussed based on word formation process. The findings in this study seem to confirm that language changes in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game follow the same patterns as in other environments.

The purpose with this study is to problematize implementation of the concept of universal design for learning (UDL), (Meyer, Rose & Gordon, 2014) in higher education. The study focuses on what university teachers express regarding their experiences of the concept of UDL two or three years after having taken part of a series of workshops to learn UDL. The analysis was done using content analysis (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2011) and the theoretical framework of Designs for Learning (DFL) was used in order to highlight the results (Marie Leijon & Lindstrand, 2012; Selander, 2008; Selander & Kress, 2010). The results cannot be generalized but imply that UDL, without any particular adaptation for a Swedish context, is a concept for widening participation. After participating in a workshop series on UDL the concept has had a lasting impact with the respondents. The respondents use all three of the main principles of UDL; provide multiple means for engagement provide multiple means for representation and provide multiple means for action and expression. UDL is indicated to be a concept towards student centered learning and teaching, towards improving student’s possibilities of learning to learn and as a concept for manifesting a mindset for widening participation. UDL is by the respondents in this study also seen as a concept to develop widening participation. They see UDL as a concept for management to strategically implement widening participation. which is missing and asked for by the respondents. The possible drawbacks with the concept is just that, that few use UDL, few know about it and there is no recommendation from management to use UDL. Another drawback is that it takes time implementing UDL, though some respondents point out that it saves time in the end.

INTRODUCTION: Students from low-income backgrounds (LIB) have been underrepresented in Canadian medical schools for over fifty years. Despite our awareness of this problem, little is known about the experiences of aspiring physicians from LIB in Canada who are working towards medical school admission. As a result, we do not have insight into the barriers and facilitators that may be used to increase the representation of students from LIB in Canadian medical schools. METHODS: This thesis describes a qualitative description interview study aimed at understanding the experiences of aspiring physicians from LIB as they attempt to gain entry to medical school. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 participants at different stages of their undergraduate, master’s, and non-medical professional education. RESULTS: We used the theories of intersectionality and identity capital as a theoretical framework for identifying barriers and facilitators to a career in medicine. Participants experienced social, identity-related, economic, structural, and informational barriers to a career in medicine. Intrinsic facilitators included motivation, self-confidence, attitude, strategy, information seeking and sorting, and financial literacy and increasing income. Extrinsic facilitators were social, informational, financial, and institutional in nature. CONCLUSION: This study fills existing gaps in the literature by identifying the pre-admissions barriers and facilitators encountered by aspiring physicians from LIB. This information will be useful to medical schools, organizations, and researchers interested in supporting underrepresented groups. Given that medical students from LIB are more likely to serve underserved populations, this is relevant to Canadian medical schools’ social accountability commitment to producing physicians that meet the health needs of marginalized and vulnerable patients. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / GOALS: This thesis describes an interview study aimed at understanding the experiences of aspiring physicians from low-income backgrounds (LIB) as they attempt to gain entry to medical school. Interviews were conducted with 15 participants at different stages of their undergraduate, master’s, and non-medical professional education. CONTRIBUTIONS: This study fills existing gaps in the literature by identifying the pre-admissions barriers and facilitators encountered by aspiring physicians from LIB. Participants experienced social, identity-related, economic, structural, and informational barriers to a career in medicine. Intrinsic facilitators included motivation, self-confidence, attitude, strategy, information seeking and sorting, and financial literacy and increasing income. Extrinsic facilitators were social, informational, financial, and institutional. This information will be useful to medical schools, supportive organizations and researchers interested in supporting underrepresented groups.

The higher education system has undergone considerable change in the past fifty years. Increasing the number of students enrolled in university has been a focus of these changes. Despite the governments’ attempts in reducing the social class gap, there exist very large differences in those applying for r higher education. It seems despite the large socio-economic gap and the elitist image of attending university, UK government policies have not provided suitable support to reduce this gap. The level of concern over this subject has varied across different governments which could possibly have effects on young people’s transition from school across the different social classes. This thesis will address the difference between the New Labour and the Coalition governments’ level of attention to the issue of working class under-representation in universities and the policies they have developed to tackle it. It then investigates the effects of selected schemes designed to widen participation and explains how and why they are assumed to contribute to the reduction of the class gap in higher education participation. This study uses the dataset Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) to explore the relationship between attending widening access schemes and the likelihood of attending university during the New Labour office term. In doing so, and due to the shortage of direct measurements of state-funded widening participation programs, the analysis in this research uses school engagement activities as proxies. Additionally to provide an intergenerational comparison, given the differences in both data and policy environment, this research analyses the British Cohort Study 1970 data in order to provide further insights regarding the effectiveness of the then school engagement activities on university attendance. In other words, can the activities used to widen participation then provide greater insight into the kinds of programmes that might be effective in raising working class university participation? In turn this analysis provides the basis for an in-depth policy discussion of the issue.

Avhandlingen syftar till att undersöka folkhögskoledeltagares sociala representationer om högskola och universitet. Enligt teorin om sociala representationer är folkhögskoledeltagarnas sociala representationer om högskola och universitet något som skapas socialt och förändras beroende på deltagarnas erfarenheter av högskola och universitet. Avhandlingen syftar också till att undersöka dessa sociala representationers ursprung och framväxt, liksom om de har påverkats av andra sociala representationer exempelvis dem om folkhögskolans särart. För att identifiera folkhögskole­deltagarnas sociala identitet och sociala representationer har jag använt mig av empiriska data insamlat genom fria associationer och intervjuer med folkhögskoledeltagare och före detta folkhögskoledeltagare. För att undersöka representationernas ursprung har jag genomfört en dokument­studie på folkhögskolelärarnas tidskrift. Resultaten visar att folkhögskolans företrädare genom hela folkhögskolans historia har förhållit sig till två huvudidéer, den om folkhögskolans särart och den om att folkhögskolan är en institution som anpassar sig efter det omkringliggande samhället och dess krav. Dessa båda idéer förklarar varför olika sociala identiteter och olika sociala representa­tioner existerar bland folkhögskoledeltagarna. Grundidén att folkhögskolan har en särart leder till representationer om folkhögskolan som ett alternativ till annan utbildning och högskola och universitet som något som inte är likt folkhögskola. Den andra grundläggande idén om folkhögskolan som en institution som ständigt anpassar sig leder till representationer om folkhögskolan som en andra chans och högskolan som mål. / The thesis aims to investigate folk high school participants’ social representations of university. According to the theory of social representa­tions, folk high school participants’ social representations of university are created socially and change depending on their experiences of university. The thesis also aims to investigate the origins of these social representations and how they have developed over time, as well as whether and how these rep­resent­ations have been affected by other social representa­tions, such as those of the distinctive character of folk high school. In order to identify folk high schools participants’ social identities and social rep­resenta­tions, I have made use of empirical data collected through free associa­tions and interviews with folk high school participants and former folk high school participants. To discover the origin of the representations and how they developed over time, I conducted a document study of an important folk high school teacher magazine. The results show that throughout the history of folk high schools, the institution has remained true to two basic ideas. These two fundamental ideas explain why different social identities and different representa­tions exist among the participants. The idea of folk high school as something different and special, leads to representations of folk high school as an alternative to other forms of education and to representations of university as some­­thing unlike folk high school. The second idea – that folk high school must adapt to the surrounding community – leads to representations of folk high school as a second chance and social representations of university as a goal.