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This collection offers an authoritative, up-to-date commentary on the challenges facing higher education today across both the UK and internationally. The book charts the impact of global economic trends and recent policy developments for students, academics, providers and changing course provision.

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List of Tables, Charts and Figures Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors PART I: INCLUSION, EXCLUSION: ISSUES IN WIDENING PARTICIPATION Introduction: Widening Participation in Contemporary Context; T.Hinton-Smith Changing Policy Discourses on Equity and Diversity in UK Higher Education: What is the Evidence?; M.David Widening Participation in Universities in England and Wales: Is There a Connection with Honours Degree Achievement?; M.Yorke Wider Still and Wider? A Historical Look at the ´Open-ness´ of the Open University of the United Kingdom; A.Woodley PART II: ENGAGING WITH HIGHER EDUCATION AS A NON-TRADITIONAL STUDENT: ACCESS AND MOTIVATION Good Students, Bad Pupils: Constructions of ´Aspiration´, ´Disadvantage´ and Social Class in Undergraduate-led Widening Participation Work; Y.Taylor Mature Women Students, Study Motivation and Employability; R.Woodfield Lone Parent Students´ Motivations for and Hopes of Higher Education Engagement; T.Hinton-Smith PART III: NON-TRADITIONAL STUDENTS´ EXPERIENCES IN HIGHER EDUCATION ´Choosing a Student Lifestyle?´ Questions of Taste, Cultural Capital and Gaining a Graduate Job; M.Stuart , C.Lido & J.Morgan Transformation or Trauma: The Transition to Higher Education of Non-traditional Students; P.Frame , L.Measor & P.Wilcox Non-traditional Adult Students: Access, Drop-out, Retention and Developing a Learner Identity; B.Merrill The Importance of Social Support Structures for Retention and Success; J.Field & N.Morgan-Klein PART IV: WIDENING PARTICIPATION IN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXTS Widening Participation Trends in Sweden: Regulations and their Effects, Intended and Unintended; C.Berggren & C.Cliffordson Trends in Widening Participation in French Higher Education; M.Moreau Widening Participation in Spanish Higher Education: Will the Current Reform Promote the Inclusion of Non-traditional Students?´; M.Padilla-Carmona Experiencing Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: The Symbolic Power of Being a Student; L.Morley Women and Students of Colour as Non-traditional Students: The Difficulties of Inclusion in the United States; A.MacLachlan Widening Participation and ´Elite´ Online Education: The case of the University of California; S.Earl-Novell Conclusion: Assessing Progress and Priorities in Widening Participation; T.Hinton-Smith Index

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"This book is an engaging and ambitious book that provides both an historical and a current perspective on widening participation issues. The ambition of the book means that the reader jumps quickly through topics, from fair access to drop out, from gender to ethnicity, from England to Ghana, but this broad perspective does mean that it informs the reader on most of the major widening participation debates in recent years." - Anna Vignoles, British Journal of Educational Studies

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