Chapter 1: Introduction: Delivering and Evaluating Participation After Access: Higher Education in a Marketised System

This edited volume brings together expert practitioners in many areas of student success in the English (or UK) higher education (HE) system, with a particular focus on those accessing and participating in HE from underrepresented and otherwise disadvantaged groups (aka widening participation (WP) students). Part of our purpose is to explore what is different about supporting participation for WP students once they are in the system (as opposed to reaching out to them prior to recruitment); another purpose is to locate these developments in the changing policy background context for this work. Once we have established our positionality, the remainder of this book will fall into two major themes: student success activities carried out by HE providers (HEPs) (what do we do?) and the evaluation of these activities (does it work?). These themes will be among those illustrated through four research-informed case-study chapters contributed by practitioners across a range of HEPs.