Access or excess? - The participation rate in higher education is (still) increasing, which seems to fit with the growing demands from the knowledge economy. But, are there limits to the growth, in that skills and knowledge of highly-educated graduates may be underused or that highly-educated graduates out-crowd those with low(er) qualifications? Moreover, research has shown that participation is unequal (in terms of both horizontal and vertical segregation) across gender, social class, and ethnic background. What is the state of the art re (in)equalities in access and participation? What kind of access and excess policies are in place and what are the effects? Talk held at the invitation of the Ghent University Higher Education Governance research group for the seminar series “Higher Education: Global challenges and multi-disciplinary perspectives.”

1. 27 March 2014 University of Ghent
“Access or excess?”
Dr. Dominic Orr
Seminar series
Higher Education: Global challenges and multi-disciplinary perspectives

2. 2Orr | Access or excess…
Outline of talk
A: Excess – ever-bigger higher education systems
B: Access – selection and fairness
1. Growth according to UOE international statistics
2. World polity theory – growth everywhere as global programme
3. What is a big higher education system?
4. A look at personal gains
1. Regulation of higher education entry in comparison
2. Second chance routes
3. Participative equity according to EUROSTUDENT statistics
4. Four phases of participative equity
5. Interventions used to improve participative equity

3. 3Orr | Access or excess…
A - Excess

4. 4Orr | Access or excess…
122%
108%
100%
105%
110%
115%
120%
125%
130%
135%
140%
2000-2005 2005-2010
average
Q1
median
Q3
A1 - Growth according to UOE international statistics
(students of tertiary education)
• Significant growth in most higher education systems* – slowing slightly
since 2005
Source: UOE-Data set, data from following countries –
AU, AT, CA, CL, CZ, DK, FI, FR, DE, GR, HU, IS, IE, IL, IT, JP, KR, MX, NL, NZ, NO, PL, PT, SK, ES, SE, LH, TR, UK, US, B
R, RU (main exception AT, with +43% growth 2005-2010)

5. 5Orr | Access or excess…
A2 - World polity theory (John W. Meyer)… growth
everywhere as global programme
“The sheer levels of enrollments – 80% in some European countries
and well into double-digits within some agricultural Sub-Saharan nations
– hint that educational expansion may be sharply decoupled from real
economic demand.”
Source: Krücken, G., & Drori, G. S. (Eds.). (2009). World Society: The writings of John W. Meyer. Oxford University Press.
• Argues against the functionalist justification for expansion.
• From the 1960s he sees a new model in which education
is seen as cause, rather than a functional consequence, of
economic growth and change.
• He problematises: a worldwide ideological agreement that
education is a main source of social progress, but the
character of the link is very unclear. This is a situation that
generates the rapid diffusion of fashionable models of what
an educational system should look like.

6. 6Orr | Access or excess…
A3 - What is a big higher education system?
• E.g. South Korea – 2.5 million or 4 million students?
• E.g. State Secretary Portugal – to achieve ET2020 goal of 40% with
higher education, growth using short-cycle courses in UAS/polytechnic
sector
• General questions:
What is a student? (e.g. full- and part-time)
What is higher education? (in comparison to vocational education)
What is a HEI? (differences between unis/HEIs, e.g. universities and
polytechnics, and stratification)
“We are not the third level of secondary schooling”
(German rector of University of Leipzig, Annual Conference German
Rectors’ Conference on Project nexus, 25.3.14)

7. 7Orr | Access or excess…
A4 - A look at personal gains – most people (still) benefit
Source: Eurydice, E., Eurostat, Eurostudent, & Eurydice Eurostat Eurostudent. (2012). The European higher education area in 2012 - Bologna Process
Implementation Report. EACEA.
Higher education qualification not financially beneficial
for everyone! However, there are other benefits…

8. 8Orr | Access or excess…
A – Excess?
• Well – higher education is certainly changing
• But this should be thought of a process of differentiation
• Certainly – we must keep asking what higher education and
higher learning is – and how to assure this

9. 9Orr | Access or excess…
B - Access

10. 10Orr | Access or excess…
Entry exam
Vocational
profile
Higher Education Entry
Upper Secondary
Schooling
(ISCED 3A)
Academic
profile
Exam for
(almost all)
Special exam for
few
B1 - Regulation of higher education entry in comparison –
there is always selection somewhere
Transition points = points of
selection (and decision)
How did you get into
higher education?

11. 11Orr | Access or excess…
B1 – Regulation…through link between leaving school certificate
and entrance qualification for HE
Orr, D., & Hovdhaugen, E. (2014). “Second chance” routes into higher education: Sweden, Norway and Germany compared. International Journal of
Lifelong Education, 33(1), 45–61.
entitlement model
examination
model, i.e. use of hard
or soft criteria to
determine entrance
to HE

12. 12Orr | Access or excess…
Lower secondary schooling
(ISCED 2), or lower
Adult education and
further education
APR
Vocational
profile
Higher Education Entry
Upper Secondary
Schooling
(ISCED 3A)
Academic
profile
Exam for
(almost all)
Special exam for
few
Second chance routes
B2 – Second chance routes
Entry exam

13. 13Orr | Access or excess…
B3 - Participative equity according to EUROSTUDENT statistics
(the indicators)
Share of students whose parents have
low school-leaving qualifications as
highest attainment
Share of population, who could
be students’ parents, with
low school-leaving qualifications
Goal: 1:1 (not lower,
but expect under-
representations)
Goal: 1:1 (not higher,
but expect over-representations)
Share of students whose parents have academic (higher
ed) qualifications as highest attainment
Share of population, who could be
students’ parents, with
academic (higher ed) qualifications
10%
40%
60%
30%
Indicators for HE access
are always relative
(context-related)

14. 14Orr | Access or excess…
B3 - Participative equity according to EUROSTUDENT
statistics (the results)
Orr, D.; Gwosc, C. & Netz, N. (2011). Social and Economic Conditions of Student Life in Europe. WBV.

15. 15Orr | Access or excess…
B4 – Four phases of participative equity
Before entry to
higher education:
Characteristic:
qualifying and
decision-making
stage.
SD goal:
to raise aspirations
Graduation and
transition:
Characteristic:
transition into
labour market or
further
educational
training
SD goal: to
secure a
successful
transition (and
perhaps to raise
aspirations)
Study framework:
Characteristic: study
progression and
completion, study-work-
life balance
SD goal: (i) to ensure
students’ learning
progress and (ii) to
reduce impact of
students’ need to
balance the resources of
time and money on
students’ success, i.e. to
improve retention and
success
At entry to higher
education:
Characteristic:
selective stage
SD goal: widening
access
Concept used in project PL4SD – see website www.pl4sd.eu for
more information

16. 16Orr | Access or excess…
Before entry to
higher education:
• Campaigns
targeting parents
on benefits of HE
• School liaison
officers to raise
aspirations of
school-leavers
Graduation and
transition:
• Career advice
• Internships
• Special final
year grants
Study framework:
• Modularised courses
and cumulative credit
acquisition
• New pedagogical
approaches
• Financial support of
students
• Student
counselling, advising
and coaching and
buddy systems
• Incentives for HEIs to
recruit and support
non-traditional
students
At entry to higher
education:
• Remedial
classes and
summer schools
• APL and
contextualised
applications and
other second
chance routes
PL4SD Interim
Conference:
2.4.2014 in Vienna
Demographic changes;
lifelong learning
Premium funding for non-
traditional students
e.g. in Germany
arbeiterkind.de
Also using blended
learning
B5 – Interventions used to improve participative equity

17. 17Orr | Access or excess…
B – Access?
• Demography and lifelong learning means that access is
probably widening anyway – effective higher education
provision can only be assured by realising this
• However, special attention should be paid to
underrepresented groups
• If higher education is so important, all motivated persons
should have the chance (and a second chance) to
participate – participative equity is necessary

18. 18Orr | Access or excess…
Outline of talk
A: Excess – ever-bigger higher education systems
B: Access – selection and fairness
1. Growth according to UOE international statistics
2. World polity theory – growth everywhere as global programme
3. What is a big higher education system?
4. A look at personal gains
1. Regulation of higher education entry in comparison
2. Second chance routes
3. Participative equity according to EUROSTUDENT statistics
4. Four phases of participative equity
5. Interventions used to improve participative equity