The social inclusion meme in higher education: are universities doing enough?

Abstract

Universities in the developed world have engaged in many attempts to transform unequal social relations, inherited from the past, through restructuring their tertiary education systems. On the whole, this endeavour has been generated by national governments. Discourses about ‘diversity’ and ‘social inclusion’ have driven this policy drive, and they present as a moral imperative whilst obscuring the socio-cultural dynamics which generate both academic success and failure. Whilst all universities are required to embrace social inclusion rhetorically, their practices vary enormously. This paper examines the foundation of the arguments which employ both social and individual benefits of mass tertiary education, and discusses the impact of massification on universities themselves. It explores the ways in which low socio-economic status (LSES) students experience universities, and argues that a socio-cultural impasse has generated a strongly stratified tertiary sector where non-elite institutions cater for disproportionally high numbers of LSES students. Finally, the paper makes a judgement about the collective responsibility universities should have for increasing the participation of LSES students.

Keywords:

• higher education
• low socioeconomic students
• social inclusion
• widening participation

Notes on contributor

Katie Hughes publishes widely in the area of social justice and education, particularly in the field of widening participation. Her research focuses on the ways in which universities might productively engage with first-in-family students to enhance their first year at university and overcome the transition from high school.

Notes

1 These are not discrete categories of course.

2 Although dated, this excerpt from the film Educating Rita based on the play by Willy Russell illustrates these characteristics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smKTxgQp8S0&feature=related

3 The Go8 refers to Australia's research intensive universities; the Australian National University, the University of Western Australia, the University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne, the University of New South Wales, the University of Queensland, Monash University and the University of Adelaide.

4 This was determined by ‘banding’ the overall ranking of the universities into three.