How Can we Widen Participation in Higher Education? The Promise of Contextualised Admissions

Abstract

Widening participation in higher education has been on the UK policy agenda for more than fifty years. Yet, despite some progress across the UK higher education sector overall (DfE, 2016), students from less socioeconomically advantaged backgrounds remain severely under-represented among entrants to the UK\textquoteright{}s most academically selective universities.