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Durham University Evidence Centre for Education
The River Wear on a sunny day with Durham Cathedral in the background

Widening Participation

Widening participation in post-compulsory education, tackling social exclusion and lifelong learning has long been a concern of UK governments. At DECE we have experts in this field who have conducted a wide range of research relating to the analysis of data on admissions to higher education, strategies to promote participation, fair access and social inclusion.

Current projects include

  • Mapping and evaluating the use of contextual data in undergraduate admissions in Scotland
  • Evaluation of Children's University social action trial
  • Evaluation of Youth United Social Action Trial
  • Evaluating the use of contextual data in undergraduate admissions

Recent relevant publications include

Boliver, V., S. Gorard & Siddiqui, N. (2019) Using contextualised admissions to widen access to higher education: A guide to the evidence base. DECE: ISBN 978-0-907552-20-8.

Siddiqui, N., Boliver, V. & Gorard, S. (2019). Reliability of Longitudinal Social Surveys of Access to Higher Education: The Case of Next Steps in England. Social Inclusion 7(1): 80-89.

Gorard, S., Boliver, V., Siddiqui, N.& Banerjee, P. (2019) Which are the most suitable contextual indicators for use in widening participation to HE?, Research Papers in Education, 34, 1, 99-129.