Widening Participation in Higher Education: Policy Regimes and Globalizing Discourses

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of the international policy regimes focused on widening participation (WP) in higher education (HE). Such policy regimes are related to complex questions of inequality in and beyond HE and contested discourses of social justice, quality and equity. At the same time, these policy regimes are also shaped by the wider politics and perspectives of globalization and neoliberalism, both creating and constraining possibilities for equity in HE (Burke, 2012; Rhoads and Szelenyi, 2013; Williams, 2013). Discourses of ‘excellence’ are increasingly foregrounded in HE policy, and this poses particular challenges for widening access and participation. The chapter will analyse different policy regimes and discourses across national contexts to examine the relationship and tensions between WP, discourses of excellence and the institutional and social positioning of HE in broader contemporary social structures and relations. Taking a comparative approach, the chapter will analyse policy statements and texts concerned with access and WP in China, the United States and England.