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The April '26 reading group - "Policy and practice in widening participation: a six country comparative study of access as flexibility"
At our latest WAHEI reading meeting, we discussed Michael Osborne's (2003) comparative study across six countries to think about higher education access and outreach. The article offered insights into in-reach, outreach, and flexibility in higher education outreach. The policy contexts of Australia, Canada, England, Finland, and France were useful for guided thinking. Access, he argues, is not a fixed threshold but a matter of flexibility — in how institutions recognise prior learning, structure pathways, and accommodate non-traditional students across the life course.
Institutions may formally welcome diverse learners, whilst retaining admissions frameworks, timetabling, and pedagogical cultures might not be amenable. Osborne鈥檚 work raises important questions about who gets recognised as a learner and how institutions need to adapt to widening access to higher education.
Michael Osborne (2003) Policy and practice in widening participation: a six-country comparative study of access as flexibility, International Journal of Lifelong Education, 22:1, 43-58,
