Since the dawn of democracy in South Africa, significant progress has been made with regards to access to higher education. However, widening participation to under-represented groups in science and technology fields, with special reference to Biological Sciences, still remains a challenge. Despite the growing number of black students in this programme, there is still a substantial gap in terms of the enrolment numbers of student from this racial group in the Biological Sciences. This research is a case study carried out in the faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Pretoria, which is a historically white institution with a strong Afrikaans culture. The study used Osborne and Gallacher’s (2004) framework of getting in and getting through to explore access policy at this institution in relation to widening participation in Biological Sciences. The findings showed that, while there has been progress with regards to physical and epistemological access, getting in to Biological Sciences still proves difficult to attain, especially for black male students from under-represented groups, including those from township and rural areas. The challenges related to getting in are compounded by various factors. These include inadequate preparation of learners for university studies such as limited preparation for natural science studies, limited exposure to science laboratories, inadequate career guidance resulting in wrong subject mix, late submission of application forms and the ‘walk–in’ phenomenon. Funding is crucial for facilitating access to Biological Sciences but it is hard to come by and insufficient for students from low socioeconomic groups. The government initiated funding have potential to help needy students with talent but it is not sufficient to cover both tuition and residence fees. In addition to the financial assistance that the university offers, it also provides a strong academic and psychosocial support to students, particularly in first year in Biological Sciences. Both academic and psychosocial support are factors enabling access and widening participation in Biological Sciences. They also underpin getting through. However, students in residences tend to benefit more from these support initiatives. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

Yes / While widening access is high on universities' agendas at undergraduate level, class barriers still prevail in the academy. Here, ... working-class scholars describe their experiences of 'otherness' / A section of the article 'Being working class in the academy' is reproduced here in line with the publisher's copyright restrictions.

Yes

Cooperative learning is a pedagogic approach that is prevalent in all levels of education as it is seen to yield higher learning outcomes than individual learning (Johnson & Johnson, 2009). In the global university, it is believed to have the potential of increasing intercultural contact since students work together in small groups to conduct projects related to their discipline. The assumption is that students will learn the intercultural skills they need for an interconnected world by studying and learning in groups with linguistically and ethnically diverse others (Association of Community Colleges Canada, 2010). Although cooperative learning is based on social interdependence in which group members work together for the mutual benefit of their group, there has been very little research conducted into the relationships that the group members actually have with each other. It is the aim of this study to examine these relationships and find out their impacts on cooperative learning experiences. Drawing upon insights from pragmatism and dialogism, in this thesis, learning is conceptualised as an embodied, socially situated, and relational process. This means that the key to learning is the relationships that learners can construct with others. An integral part of forming relationships is the negotiation of identities in which people see themselves and others as certain kinds of people. In learning in cooperative groups, the ability to negotiate legitimate, competent identities is regarded as essential. For this reason, the study reported in this thesis uses a view of identity as socially constructed as a lens though which to analyse relationships in cooperative learning. The study focuses on the experiences of 12 students participating in group learning projects in first year business courses. Narrative inquiry is the methodology used as it is ideal for highlighting the complexities in human relationships and issues of power. The narratives of four international, four Canadian immigrant, and four Canadian-born students are analysed. A key finding from the analysis is that the relationship students are able to negotiate in cooperative groups and the types of identities they are able to construct with others strongly impacts their learning. There appeared to be a hierarchical order to student identities in groups with Canadian-born students assuming more powerful identities. Frequently these students are results oriented showing only interest in achieving high marks in their group projects. This leads to an absence of emotional connectedness amongst students and a disregard for the process aspect of working together which is core to cooperative learning. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the ways that cooperative learning could be changed to make it more process oriented. Finally, I make recommendations for further research which can build on the findings from this study.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The following study categorises, summarises and analyses research on unequal participation of social groups in Nordic higher education. While it does not give an exhaustive account of all research, the ambition has been to capture the main strands of contemporary literature and its results. I categorise the literature into three main research traditions, as well as into studies that may best be characterised by their object of study. This typology forms the structure in which research is presented in the study. The summary of research results show that in parallel with the efforts to expand higher education and include larger parts of the population, the relationship between family background and children’s years of education has weakened and the rate of participation in higher education has increased among underrepresented groups. At the same time, however, patterns where students tend to study different study programmes or at different higher education institutions depending on gender and social or national background have remained largely intact, and in some cases even grown stronger. These differences in participation rates and enrolment patterns can be traced to inequalities in school achievement, unequal access to knowledge and information, differences in family support and expectations from the social environment, different horizons of opportunities, as well as different preferences regarding the length of the study programme, its degree of labour market connection and the importance placed on the geographical proximity to family and friends. One of the contributions of the analysis is showing how questions and methods in different research traditions generate different types of results, which at first glance may seem incompatible. Upon closer inspection, however, the research results in fact paint a highly congruent picture. A consistent theme throughout is how more detailed, multidimensional or intersectional indicators and classifications of education, social background or other social groupings often reveal important differences and inequalities that are invisible in studies that use more aggregated or linear indicators and groupings. / <p>Uppsatsen skrevs ursprungligen i rapportform på uppdrag av Universitetskanslersämbetet (UKÄ) och publicerades 2021 inom ramen för UKÄ:s regeringsuppdrag att utvärdera lärosätenas arbete med breddad rekrytering. Texten har nu när den läggs fram som uppsats på några ställen omarbetats eller justerats, men är i stora drag identisk med uppdragsrapporten, där professor Mikael Börjesson som uppsatshandledare stod som garant för studiens kvalitet gentemot UKÄ.</p><p>Bryntesson, A., &amp; Börjesson, M. (2021). <em>Forskning om rekrytering till högre utbildning i de nordiska länderna, 2010–2021. En kunskapsöversikt</em> (Rapporter från Forskningsgruppen för utbildnings- och kultursociologi Nr 64). SEC, Uppsala universitet</p>