Widening participation in higher education: a play in five acts - Tim Pitman

Oct 15, 2026

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This paper examines policies and programs used in Australian higher education to address educational disadvantage and widen access and participation. It identifies four distinct approaches—massification, redistribution, re-normalisation, and benefit—each reflecting particular assumptions about the nature of disadvantage. Using sector policies from the mid-1940s onward, the study evaluates impacts through access, student demographic change, and post-enrolment and post-graduation outcomes, and proposes an alternative fifth act focused on student identity.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Acts of equity: four approaches to widening participation in higher education

Massification

A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W Widening participation in higher education: a play in five acts Tim Pitman Curtin University Policies and programs to address higher education disadvantage reveal four distinct approaches, each revealing certain assumptions about the nature of educational disadvantage. These are: creating mass higher education systems; redistributing or allocating certain places to disadvantaged students; changing the cultural practices of institutions; and shifting the policy focus from access towards higher education outcomes or benefits. Using the Australian higher education sector as a case study, each of these approaches is defined, identified and examined in regard to its impact on widening access and participation in higher education. An alternative approach – a fifth act – is proposed; one which concentrates on the need to understand the identity of the student, both in terms of how he/she understands disadvantage and what he/she wants out of higher education. Keywords: access, participation, disadvantage, higher education, Australia Introduction For at least the last quarter century, policies designed to widen access to and participation in higher education have been largely predicated on notions of proportional representation or ‘changing the balance of the student population to reflect more closely the composition of society as a whole’ (Department of Employment Education and Training, 1990, p. 2) . The goal of social justice has been a common thread linking higher education policies; various approaches represent forms of distributive justice; that is the proportional distribution of a resource to diverse groups and individuals (Gale & Densmore, 2000; Gale & Tranter, 2011).These approaches speak to fundamental principles of egalitarianism, which hold that whilst humans are of equal value, the existence of socially-constructed inequality requires intervention to ensure equitable distribution (Walton et al., 2014).The aim of creating a more representative student body is, for many policymakers, the essence of higher education equity policy. However, whilst distributive justice is synonymous with equity in higher education, conceptualising all efforts to widen higher education participation as iterations of redistributive justice misrepresents a wider range of strategies designed to increase the access and participation of disadvantaged students in higher education. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it seeks to outline a framework for understanding the various approaches (what are called here ‘acts’) to addressing educational disadvantage in the tertiary stage of education. These include, but are not limited to, policies of redistributive justice. To this end, this study uses the Australian higher education sector as a case study. Examining policies dating back to the mid-1940s, four approaches or acts are identified: massification, redistribution, re-normalisation and benefit, with each described and discussed below.Second,a range of available vol. 59, no. 1, 2017 Widening participation in higher education: a play in five acts Tim Pitman 37 A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W data and statistics is interrogated to empirically consider the effect these various acts of addressing disadvantage have had on the composition of the Australian higher education sector since 1950.These impacts are measured in terms of overall access to higher education, changes to student demographics and more recently, considerations of the post-enrolment and post-graduation outcomes for the students. Acts of equity: four approaches to widening participation in higher education Massification Acts of massification seek first and foremost to increase the overall number of higher education participants, not any particular subset. The aphorism ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’ is regularly cited (Sheldon & Gottschalk, 1986), evidencing a belief

FAQs

What four approaches (acts) does the paper identify for addressing educational disadvantage?

It identifies massification, redistribution, re-normalisation, and benefit as four approaches to widening participation in higher education.

How does the paper evaluate the impacts of these approaches in Australia?

Impacts are measured through overall access to higher education, changes to student demographics, and later considerations of post-enrolment and post-graduation outcomes.

What is the proposed alternative fifth act?

The fifth act focuses on understanding the student’s identity—how they understand disadvantage and what they want from higher education.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Ben