In view of the so-called 'refugee crisis' which began in late 2014, there is a growing potential demand for higher education opportunities amongst refugee communities in England and more widely in Europe. Whilst exact numbers are not certain, it is necessary to establish whether such demands can be met at all. Based on in-depth semi-structured…

This paper explores educational inequalities through an analysis of the educational aspirations and future expectations of British girls and young women who identify as Muslim. It draws on qualitative interviews and focus group discussions with teen girls (aged 13-19) and young women in their early 20s living in the north and south of England, the…

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 this has been conceptualised as a problem with their 'aspirations,' with the solution being seen as the provision of 'aspiration-raising' activities…

The newly arrived Roma Slovak community in a large urban city in the north of England has been widely perceived as having a myriad of social problems and there is a conflict with the wider community. This paper presents the results of a project to explore barriers and possibilities for the social and educational integration of newly arrived Roma…

In this paper John Butcher challenges policymakers and the English higher education sector to act urgently to address the decline in part-time higher education. Although the drop in part-time student numbers has been well-reported in a series of quantitative studies, the problem persists. The dramatic reduction in part-time learners…

The COVID Social Mobility & Opportunities (COSMO) study is a new national cohort study generating high-quality evidence about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected socio-economic inequalities in life chances, both in terms of short- and long-term effects on education, wellbeing, and career outcomes. A representative sample of young people in…

There is a widespread concern that relatively few students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, continue to study chemistry and other science subjects after compulsory education. Yet it remains unclear how different aspects of students' background and home context, their own attitudes and beliefs, and their experiences of particular…

This article reflects on some aspects of a doctoral ethnographic study of young people disaffected from schooling in a post-industrial space of ruin in a former coal-mining community in England. It considers how their experiences of resistance and refusal of schooling can, in the relational ethos of non-school support settings, come to speak back…

This paper considers the role of social capital in the aspirations for higher education of a group of socially disadvantaged girls. Drawing on data from a longitudinal, ethnographic case study of an underperforming secondary school, the paper considers current conceptualisations of social capital and its role in educational ambitions. The paper…

This paper is based on a small-scale mixed-method research project, which was located in south-east England and was funded by the British Academy. The project, investigated the factors that affected young people's decisions not to progress to higher education (HE) after following a Level 3 vocational pathway in upper secondary education. Set…

This paper explores the way that opportunity of access to higher education, particularly for women of color and those disadvantaged by homelessness, is placed at risk by market approaches to education. In England, Asian and Afro-Caribbean women, have been able to access higher education through funds made available under the Race Relations Act of…