Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Outputs (44)

Mature female learners activating agency after completion of an education foundation degree: professional progression and the teacher shortage crisis (2019)
Journal Article
Bovill, H., Harrison, N., Smith, H., Bennett, V., & McKenzie, L. (2021). Mature female learners activating agency after completion of an education foundation degree: professional progression and the teacher shortage crisis. Research Papers in Education, 36(2), 196-215. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2019.1633565

This paper draws upon questionnaire data from 126 mature, female alumni students and interviews with a subset of 20 participants who completed education foundation degrees in three English universities in the South West. Three illustrative cases from... Read More about Mature female learners activating agency after completion of an education foundation degree: professional progression and the teacher shortage crisis.

Using the lens of 'possible selves' to explore access to higher education: A new conceptual model for practice, policy, and research (2018)
Journal Article
Harrison, N. (2018). Using the lens of 'possible selves' to explore access to higher education: A new conceptual model for practice, policy, and research. Social Sciences, 7(10), Article 209. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7100209

© 2018 by the authors. The concept of 'aspiration-raising' has been ubiquitous in the discussion of differential rates of participation in higher education in England for many years. Potential students from disadvantaged backgrounds are constructed a... Read More about Using the lens of 'possible selves' to explore access to higher education: A new conceptual model for practice, policy, and research.

Students-as-insurers: rethinking ‘risk’ for disadvantaged young people considering higher education in England (2018)
Journal Article
Harrison, N. (2019). Students-as-insurers: rethinking ‘risk’ for disadvantaged young people considering higher education in England. Journal of Youth Studies, 22(6), 752-771. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2018.1535174

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. The conventional view since the early 2000s has been that participation in higher education (HE) is a risky pathway for disadvantaged young people in England; the social risk of entering... Read More about Students-as-insurers: rethinking ‘risk’ for disadvantaged young people considering higher education in England.

Challenging discourses of aspiration: The role of expectations and attainment in access to higher education (2018)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., & Waller, R. (2018). Challenging discourses of aspiration: The role of expectations and attainment in access to higher education. British Educational Research Journal, 44(5), 914-938. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3475

© 2018 British Educational Research Association Raising the proportion of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds progressing to higher education has been a key policy objective for successive governments in the UK since the late 1990s. Often thi... Read More about Challenging discourses of aspiration: The role of expectations and attainment in access to higher education.

Access, participation and capabilities: Theorising the contribution of university bursaries to students’ well-being, flourishing and success (2018)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., Davies, S., Harris, R., & Waller, R. (2018). Access, participation and capabilities: Theorising the contribution of university bursaries to students’ well-being, flourishing and success. Cambridge Journal of Education, 48(6), 677-695. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2017.1401586

For the last 10 years, universities in England have been expected to offer financial support to low-income students alongside that provided by government. These bursaries were initially conceived in terms of improving access for under-represented gro... Read More about Access, participation and capabilities: Theorising the contribution of university bursaries to students’ well-being, flourishing and success.

Success and impact in widening participation policy: What works and how do we know? (2017)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., & Waller, R. (2017). Success and impact in widening participation policy: What works and how do we know?. Higher Education Policy, 30(2), 141-160. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-016-0020-x

© 2016 International Association of Universities. Efforts to widen the participation in higher education for disadvantaged and under-represented groups are common to many countries. In England, higher education institutions are required by government... Read More about Success and impact in widening participation policy: What works and how do we know?.

Examining the epistemology of impact and success of educational interventions using a reflective case study of university bursaries (2017)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., & McCaig, C. (2017). Examining the epistemology of impact and success of educational interventions using a reflective case study of university bursaries. British Educational Research Journal, 43(2), 290-309. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3263

This paper engages with the continuing emphasis given to evidence-based policy and ‘what works’ approaches in educational research, highlighting some of the continuing epistemological challenges from a post-positivist perspective. To illustrate thes... Read More about Examining the epistemology of impact and success of educational interventions using a reflective case study of university bursaries.

Evaluating outreach activities: overcoming challenges through a realist ‘small steps’ approach (2016)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., & Waller, R. (2017). Evaluating outreach activities: overcoming challenges through a realist ‘small steps’ approach. Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education, 21(2-3), 81-87. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603108.2016.1256353

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Practitioners are being placed under increasing pressure to evaluate the success of their outreach activities, both by government and by their own universities. Based in a reductionist d... Read More about Evaluating outreach activities: overcoming challenges through a realist ‘small steps’ approach.

Access to higher education: Theoretical perspectives and contemporary challenges (2016)
Book
Mountford-Zimdars, A., & Harrison, N. (2016). Access to higher education: Theoretical perspectives and contemporary challenges. London: Routledge

How do we understand and explain who has access to higher education? How do we make sense of persisting and new forms of inequality? How can global, national and institutional policymakers and practitioners make higher education more inclusive? Acces... Read More about Access to higher education: Theoretical perspectives and contemporary challenges.

Individual and Social Influences on Students’ Attitudes to Debt: a Cross-National Path Analysis Using Data from England and New Zealand (2016)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., & Agnew, S. (2016). Individual and Social Influences on Students’ Attitudes to Debt: a Cross-National Path Analysis Using Data from England and New Zealand. Higher Education Quarterly, 70(4), 332-353. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12094

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This study examines the construction of debt attitudes among 439 first-year undergraduates in England and New Zealand. It works from a conceptual model that predicts that attitudes will be partly determined by a range... Read More about Individual and Social Influences on Students’ Attitudes to Debt: a Cross-National Path Analysis Using Data from England and New Zealand.

The evaluation of widening participation activities in higher education: A survey of institutional leaders in England (2015)
Report
Harrison, N., Waller, R., & Last, K. (2015). The evaluation of widening participation activities in higher education: A survey of institutional leaders in England

This paper reports the results of an online survey of senior managers with responsibility for widening participation (WP) in English universities. 57 institutions participated, giving a response rate of 38 percent. The questionnaire primarily focused... Read More about The evaluation of widening participation activities in higher education: A survey of institutional leaders in England.

Practice, problems and power in ‘internationalisation at home’: critical reflections on recent research evidence (2015)
Journal Article
Harrison, N. (2015). Practice, problems and power in ‘internationalisation at home’: critical reflections on recent research evidence. Teaching in Higher Education, 20(4), 412-430. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2015.1022147

© 2015, © 2015 Taylor & Francis. In a period when international flows of higher education students are rapidly increasing and diversifying, this paper reviews recent research evidence about the experiences of ‘home’ students – those who are not mob... Read More about Practice, problems and power in ‘internationalisation at home’: critical reflections on recent research evidence.

Returning from earning: UK graduates returning to postgraduate study, with particular respect to STEM subjects, gender and ethnicity (2015)
Journal Article
d’Aguiar, S., & Harrison, N. (2016). Returning from earning: UK graduates returning to postgraduate study, with particular respect to STEM subjects, gender and ethnicity. Journal of Education and Work, 29(5), 584-613. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2014.1001332

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. It has been argued by some (e.g. the Confederation of British Industry [CBI]) that graduates lack the skills that render them employable. In particular, graduates of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) s... Read More about Returning from earning: UK graduates returning to postgraduate study, with particular respect to STEM subjects, gender and ethnicity.

Attitudes to debt among indebted undergraduates: A cross-national exploratory factor analysis (2015)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., Agnew, S., & Serido, J. (2015). Attitudes to debt among indebted undergraduates: A cross-national exploratory factor analysis. Journal of Economic Psychology, 46, 62-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2014.11.005

© 2014 Elsevier B.V. This paper reports the results of a cross-national study spanning England, New Zealand and the United States. A total of 496 first year undergraduates studying business or social science completed a 20-item questionnaire. This fo... Read More about Attitudes to debt among indebted undergraduates: A cross-national exploratory factor analysis.

Towards a typology of debt attitudes among contemporary young UK undergraduates (2015)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., Chudry, F., Waller, R., & Hatt, S. (2015). Towards a typology of debt attitudes among contemporary young UK undergraduates. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 39(1), 85-107. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2013.778966

© 2013, © 2013 UCU. The findings of this study suggest that student attitudes are more complex than assumed in some previous research and journalistic commentary, especially with respect to social class. Counterintuitively, many students from lower s... Read More about Towards a typology of debt attitudes among contemporary young UK undergraduates.

An ecological fallacy in higher education policy: the use, overuse and misuse of ‘low participation neighbourhoods’ (2015)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., & McCaig, C. (2015). An ecological fallacy in higher education policy: the use, overuse and misuse of ‘low participation neighbourhoods’. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 39(6), 793-817. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2013.858681

© 2014 UCU. One form of ecological fallacy is found in the dictum that ‘you are where you live’ – otherwise expressed in the idea that you can infer significant information about an individual or their family from the prevailing conditions around the... Read More about An ecological fallacy in higher education policy: the use, overuse and misuse of ‘low participation neighbourhoods’.

Financial literacy and student attitudes to debt: A cross national study examining the influence of gender on personal finance concepts (2015)
Journal Article
Agnew, S., & Harrison, N. (2015). Financial literacy and student attitudes to debt: A cross national study examining the influence of gender on personal finance concepts. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 25, 122-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.04.006

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. This study found a similar result in samples of university students from England and New Zealand to other countries, that males outperform females on financial literacy quizzes. While males outperformed females on a simple compou... Read More about Financial literacy and student attitudes to debt: A cross national study examining the influence of gender on personal finance concepts.

Don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it's gone? Skills-led qualifications, secondary school attainment and policy choices (2015)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., James, D., & Last, K. (2015). Don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it's gone? Skills-led qualifications, secondary school attainment and policy choices. Research Papers in Education, 30(5), 585-608. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2014.1002526

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. In the name of curriculum breadth and raising standards, recent government policy in England has removed a large number of non-academic qualifications from the list of those that secondary schools can count in league tables... Read More about Don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it's gone? Skills-led qualifications, secondary school attainment and policy choices.

Modelling the demand for higher education by local authority area in England using academic, economic and social data (2013)
Journal Article
Harrison, N. (2013). Modelling the demand for higher education by local authority area in England using academic, economic and social data. British Educational Research Journal, 39(5), 793-816. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3000

Managing the demand for higher education has been a major concern of successive UK governments over the last 30 years. While initially they sought to increase demand, latterly the emphasis has been on widening participation to include demographic gro... Read More about Modelling the demand for higher education by local authority area in England using academic, economic and social data.

The mismeasure of participation: how choosing the ‘wrong’ statistic helped seal the fate of Aimhigher (2012)
Journal Article
Harrison, N. (2012). The mismeasure of participation: how choosing the ‘wrong’ statistic helped seal the fate of Aimhigher. Higher Education Review -London-, 45(1), 30-61

Extant between 2004 and 2011, Aimhigher was the UK government’s flagship national initiative for widening participation to higher education for young people from disadvantaged social groups, with costs approaching £1 billion. Its demise was predicate... Read More about The mismeasure of participation: how choosing the ‘wrong’ statistic helped seal the fate of Aimhigher.

Expensive and failing? The role of student bursaries in widening participation and fair access in England (2012)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., & Hatt, S. (2012). Expensive and failing? The role of student bursaries in widening participation and fair access in England. Studies in Higher Education, 37(6), 695-712. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2010.539679

English universities currently spend £355m each year on bursaries to student groups who are under-represented in higher education. However, there is little evidence to suggest that this investment has had any meaningful impact on patterns of student... Read More about Expensive and failing? The role of student bursaries in widening participation and fair access in England.

Investigating the impact of personality and early life experiences on intercultural interaction in internationalised universities (2012)
Journal Article
Harrison, N. (2012). Investigating the impact of personality and early life experiences on intercultural interaction in internationalised universities. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 36(2), 224-237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2011.03.007

Qualitative studies from a range of nations suggest that students studying in their own country exhibit a range of responses towards the international students with whom they share social and academic spaces, although the tendency is towards passive... Read More about Investigating the impact of personality and early life experiences on intercultural interaction in internationalised universities.

Have the changes introduced by the 2004 Higher Education Act made higher education admissions in England wider and fairer? (2011)
Journal Article
Harrison, N. (2011). Have the changes introduced by the 2004 Higher Education Act made higher education admissions in England wider and fairer?. Journal of Education Policy, 26(3), 449-468. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2010.513742

'Widening participation' and 'fair access' have been contested policy areas in English higher education since at least the early 1990s. They were key facets of the 2003 White Paper - The Future of Higher Education - and the subsequent 2004 Higher Edu... Read More about Have the changes introduced by the 2004 Higher Education Act made higher education admissions in England wider and fairer?.

Overactive, overwrought or overdrawn? the role of personality in undergraduate financial knowledge, decision-making and debt (2011)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., & Chudry, F. (2011). Overactive, overwrought or overdrawn? the role of personality in undergraduate financial knowledge, decision-making and debt. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 35(2), 149-182. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2010.540080

The financial situation of undergraduate students remains a high-profile issue within the UK higher education sector, not least due to its perceived relationship with retention, well-being and success. This article probes this question from a new dir... Read More about Overactive, overwrought or overdrawn? the role of personality in undergraduate financial knowledge, decision-making and debt.

Participation rates in Aimhigher West: analysis and comparisons (2011)
Report
Harrison, N., & Cuthbert, R. (2011). Participation rates in Aimhigher West: analysis and comparisons

Two linked reports on widening participation in the Aimhigher West partnership area. These conclude, inter alia, that local factors such as school outcomes, labour market conditions and ethnic mix make a significant contribution to defining the high... Read More about Participation rates in Aimhigher West: analysis and comparisons.

Cultural distance, mindfulness and passive xenophobia: Using Integrated Threat Theory to explore home higher education students' perspectives on 'internationalisation at home' (2010)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., & Peacock, N. (2010). Cultural distance, mindfulness and passive xenophobia: Using Integrated Threat Theory to explore home higher education students' perspectives on 'internationalisation at home'. British Educational Research Journal, 36(6), 877-902. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920903191047

This paper addresses the question of interaction between home and international students using qualitative data from 100 home students at two 'teaching intensive' universities in the southwest of England. Stephan and Stephan's Integrated Threat Theor... Read More about Cultural distance, mindfulness and passive xenophobia: Using Integrated Threat Theory to explore home higher education students' perspectives on 'internationalisation at home'.

We blame the parents! A response to 'cultural capital as an explanation of variation in participation in higher education' by John Noble and Peter Davies (British Journal of Sociology of Education 30, no. 5) (2010)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., & Waller, R. (2010). We blame the parents! A response to 'cultural capital as an explanation of variation in participation in higher education' by John Noble and Peter Davies (British Journal of Sociology of Education 30, no. 5). British Journal of Sociology of Education, 31(4), 471-482. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2010.484922

This paper offers a response to a recent article where the authors argue cultural capital is the only determinant of the propensity of young people to seek to enter higher education, dismissing other indicators such as social class. This response que... Read More about We blame the parents! A response to 'cultural capital as an explanation of variation in participation in higher education' by John Noble and Peter Davies (British Journal of Sociology of Education 30, no. 5).

'Disadvantaged learners': Who are we targeting? Understanding the targeting of widening participation activity in the United Kingdom using geo-demographic data from southwest England (2010)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., & Hatt, S. (2010). 'Disadvantaged learners': Who are we targeting? Understanding the targeting of widening participation activity in the United Kingdom using geo-demographic data from southwest England. Higher Education Quarterly, 64(1), 65-88. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2273.2009.00431.x

This paper analyses the definition of the appropriate target group for widening participation activities advanced by the Higher Education Funding Council for England in their. Targeting Disadvantaged Learners advice to Aimhigher and higher education... Read More about 'Disadvantaged learners': Who are we targeting? Understanding the targeting of widening participation activity in the United Kingdom using geo-demographic data from southwest England.

"It's so much easier to go with what's easy": "Mindfulness" and the discourse between home and international students in the United Kingdom (2009)
Journal Article
Peacock, N., & Harrison, N. (2009). "It's so much easier to go with what's easy": "Mindfulness" and the discourse between home and international students in the United Kingdom. Journal of Studies in International Education, 13(4), 487-508. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315308319508

A recent aspect of U.K. higher education has been the internationalisation of university campuses, driven by a rapid increase in student numbers from overseas and growing pressure to prepare all students for global careers. It is often assumed by pol... Read More about "It's so much easier to go with what's easy": "Mindfulness" and the discourse between home and international students in the United Kingdom.

"Targeting disadvantaged learners": Will we really narrow the social class gap in participation by targeting our most deprived communities first? (2009)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., & Hatt, S. (2009). "Targeting disadvantaged learners": Will we really narrow the social class gap in participation by targeting our most deprived communities first?. Journal of Access Policy and Practice, 6(2), 61-80

This paper examines the 2007 guidance for widening participation practitioners issued by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the ramifications of its targeting strategy in Southwest England. Drawing on data on higher educati... Read More about "Targeting disadvantaged learners": Will we really narrow the social class gap in participation by targeting our most deprived communities first?.

Knowing the ‘unknowns’: Investigating the students whose social class is not known at entry to higher education (2009)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., & Hatt, S. (2009). Knowing the ‘unknowns’: Investigating the students whose social class is not known at entry to higher education. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 33(4), 347-357. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098770903266042

This paper originates from the National Audit Office's 2008 report into widening participation policy in the United Kingdom. The report found that while there appeared to be modest improvements in the proportion of students coming from lower socio-ec... Read More about Knowing the ‘unknowns’: Investigating the students whose social class is not known at entry to higher education.

Discussing difference, discovering similarities: A toolkit of learning activities to improve cross-cultural exchange between students of different cultural backgrounds (2009)
Report
Bloxham, J., Eade, K., Harrison, N., & Peacock, N. (2009). Discussing difference, discovering similarities: A toolkit of learning activities to improve cross-cultural exchange between students of different cultural backgrounds

This document is the output from a project commissioned under the Prime Minister's Initiative on international student mobility and undertaken by ThinkingPeople, the University of the West of England and the University of Bath and published by UKCISA... Read More about Discussing difference, discovering similarities: A toolkit of learning activities to improve cross-cultural exchange between students of different cultural backgrounds.

From opportunity to OFFA: The implementation of discretionary bursaries and their impact on student finance, academic success and institutional attachment (2007)
Journal Article
Harrison, N., Baxter, A., & Hatt, S. (2007). From opportunity to OFFA: The implementation of discretionary bursaries and their impact on student finance, academic success and institutional attachment. Journal of Access Policy and Practice, 5(1), 3-21

This paper presents a summary of findings from a five-year longitudinal study of a cohort of full-time students from low income backgrounds holding the national Excellence Challenge Opportunity Bursaries and similar institutional bursaries at a post-... Read More about From opportunity to OFFA: The implementation of discretionary bursaries and their impact on student finance, academic success and institutional attachment.

The impact of negative experiences, dissatisfaction and attachment on first year undergraduate withdrawal (2006)
Journal Article
Harrison, N. (2006). The impact of negative experiences, dissatisfaction and attachment on first year undergraduate withdrawal. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 30(4), 377-391. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098770600965383

This paper reports the results of a telephone survey of 151 undergraduates who withdrew in their first year of study at a post-1992 institution. It focuses on the negative experiences which they reported during their time at the university and the ul... Read More about The impact of negative experiences, dissatisfaction and attachment on first year undergraduate withdrawal.