Impact and effectiveness of widening access to HE in Wales

接受高等教育（HE）已成为一个极具争议的政策领域，因为历届英国政府都试图在不断增加的学费与确保高等教育向尽可能广泛的社会背景的个人开放之间取得平衡。此外，联合王国不同的权力下放行政当局采取了相对独特的做法。例如，威尔士政府目前已承诺向学生支付因取消学费上限而增加的费用。然而，评估扩大获得机会的不同办法的证据基础相对薄弱。因此，威尔士社会和经济研究、数据和方法研究所（WISERD）、威尔士高等教育资助理事会（HEFCW）和威尔士政府（WG）正在合作开发这一领域的创新研究。拟议的研究将分析居住在威尔士的个人如何在中学取得进展，进入六年级和继续教育学院，接受16岁以上的教育，并继续接受高等教育。它还将探讨什么是决定个人是否通过教育系统的进展，以他或没有这里的关键因素。个人的社会特征、他们以前的教育程度和他们在教育系统中的进展有哪些相对影响？这对高等教育进入点的障碍，如费用水平、进入程序等的影响意味着什么？这些问题的答案是已知的英格兰，但不为英国的其他地区。分析将基于三个链接的信息来源的创新使用，其中每一个的数据收集最初用于行政目的。它们是：威尔士国家学生数据库;威尔士终身学习记录;高等教育统计局数据。通过将这些联系在一起，将有可能通过教育系统追踪个人进入高等教育的轨迹。还可以系统地比较那些参加高等教育的人和那些不参加高等教育的人的轨迹。此外，使用先进的统计技术，它将有可能确定哪些是最有影响力的因素，在塑造模式的高等教育参与。这里的结果将与那些已经产生了类似的分析在England.A拟议的研究（由HEFCW提供的额外资源资助）的第二部分进行比较，将调查自1999年权力下放以来，威尔士历届政府扩大高等教育的独特方法的发展。这里的关键意义将是建立的理由，支持在威尔士通过的方法，并将这些与那些在英国和英格兰的其他国家，特别是知情的政策方法。此外，这项研究将探讨国家政策已实施的威尔士大学的方式，特别注意在这里发挥作用的高等教育参与的决定因素的假设。这部分研究将以实地工作为基础，包括分析官方和半官方文件以及与负责扩大准入政策的政治家和高级官员进行访谈;研究结果将直接纳入工作组和高等教育妇委会就扩大入学机会政策的未来发展进行的审议。他，这将是特别密集，在未来几年。此外，它们还将为与大学中负责执行扩大获取政策的专业人员合作提供基础，以便将行政数据分析的使用更牢固地纳入其日常实践。

Access to higher education (HE) has become an extremely controversial area of policy, as successive UK administrations have sought to balance increasing student fees with ensuring that HE is open to individuals from as wide a range of social backgrounds as possible. Moreover, relatively distinctive approaches have been adopted in the different devolved administrations of the UK. For example, currently, the Welsh Government has undertaken to pay the increased costs to students arising from the abolition of the fees cap. However, the evidence-base for evaluating different approaches to widening access is relatively weak. Accordingly, the Wales Institute for Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD), the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) and the Welsh Government (WG) are collaborating to develop an innovative research study in this field.The proposed research will analyse how individuals who are resident in Wales progress through secondary school, into sixth forms and further education colleges for post-16 education and on to HE. It will also explore what are the key factors here in determining whether individuals progress through the education system to HE or not. What are the relative impacts of the social characteristics of individuals, their previous educational attainment and their progression through the education system? What does this imply for the effects of barriers at the point of entry to HE, such as fees levels, entry processes and so forth? Answers to these questions are known for England, but not for other parts of the UK.The analysis will be based on the innovative use of three linked sources of information, the data for each of which are collected initially for administrative purposes. These are: the National Pupil Database (NPD) for Wales; the Lifelong Learning Wales Record (LLWR); and Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data. By linking these together, it will be possible to trace individual trajectories through the education system to entry to HE. It will also be possible to compare systematically the trajectories of those who do participate in HE with those who do not. Moreover, using sophisticated statistical techniques, it will be possible to determine which are the most influential factors in shaping patterns of HE participation. Results here will be compared with those that have been produced by similar analyses in England.A second part of the proposed study (funded by additional resources made available by the HEFCW) will investigate the development of distinctive approaches to widening access to HE by successive Welsh administrations since devolution in 1999. Of key significance here will be to establish the rationales that underpin the approaches adopted in Wales; and to compare these with those that have informed policy approaches in the other countries of the UK and England, in particular. In addition, the study will examine the ways in which national policies have been implemented by the Welsh universities, paying special attention to the assumptions about the determinants of HE participation that are in play here. This part of the study will be based on fieldwork, comprising the analysis of official and semi-official documents and interviews with politicians and senior officials responsible for widening-access policies; and with the professionals inside the universities responsible for implementing these policies.The results of the research will be fed directly into the deliberations of the WG and the HEFCW on the future development of policies on widening access to HE, which will be especially intensive over the next few years. Moreover, they will also provide the basis for working with the professionals in the universities with responsibility for implementing widening-access policies, to integrate the use of analyses of administrative data more firmly into their day-to-day practices.