Higher education is back in the spotlight, with post-2015 sustainable development goals emphasising equality of access. In this paper, we highlight the long distance still to travel to achieve the goal of equal access to higher education for all, with a focus on poorer countries which tend to have lower levels of enrolment in higher education. Analysing Demographic and Health Survey data from 35 low- and middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, we show wide wealth inequalities in particular, with few if any of the poorest gaining access to higher education in some countries. We further identify that wealth and gender inequalities interact and tend to be wider in countries where levels of higher education are higher. This implies that expansion in access to higher education may predominantly benefit the rich, unless measures are taken to tackle inequalities. We find that that the rates of increase necessary for the attainment of the equal access goal by 2030 are particularly high. They pose a particularly difficult challenge given the access inequalities present from primary and secondary education in a wide majority of countries in our analysis. We therefore suggest that any measures aimed at attaining the goal need to tackle inequalities in access within a system-wide approach, focusing on the level of education at which inequalities initially manifest, alongside higher education.

Globally, access to higher education has increased, but inequalities by socio‐economic background remain. This article explores the relationship between early schooling opportunities (and learning) and progression into higher education in four low and middle‐income countries. We analyse data from the Young Lives longitudinal study, following cohorts of young people from age 5 to 22 in four country settings: Ethiopia, Peru, Vietnam and India. We reveal wide variability in higher education participation between the four countries, with a common pattern of a very strong association between early learning and later higher education participation, even after allowing for a range of demographic characteristics. Whilst early learning is important in predicting later higher education participation, we also find that significant barriers to higher education participation remain for low socio‐economic status groups, even if they initially show good levels of learning. We track the trajectories of children who have initial good levels of learning, and hence arguably the potential to progress to higher education, and assess the extent to which socio‐economic background plays a mediating role in these trajectories. Pupils with initially good levels of learning at primary school age, but who are from poor backgrounds, fall back in terms of their relative attainment during secondary schooling years. This implies that socio‐economic status continues to be a barrier to educational attainment throughout these children’s lives. We discuss the implications of these findings for policy initiatives aimed at narrowing inequalities in higher education access in poorer countries.

In this paper, we set out the first step towards the measurement of learning gain in higher education by putting forward a conceptual framework for understanding learning gain that is relevant across disciplines. We then introduce the operationalisation of this conceptual framework into a new set of measurement tools. With the use of data from a large-scale survey of 11 English universities and over 4,500 students, we test the reliability and validity of the measurement instrument empirically. We find support in the data for the reliability of most of the measurement scales we put forward, as well as for the validity of the conceptual framework. Based on these results, we reflect on the conceptual framework and associated measurement tools in the context of at-scale deployment and the potential implications for policy and practice in higher education.

Despite increasing efforts to improve their access, students facing socio-economic disadvantages are still underrepresented in UK higher education. In this paper, we study whether behavioural nudging with information provision through text messages, embedded within a larger programme of widening participation activities, can be effective at increasing higher education application rates. We conducted two randomised control trials in which final year students in schools and further education colleges in areas with low higher education participation rates in the East of England region received a series of text messages that prompted thinking and/or action regarding the process of applying to higher education. We find null and statistically insignificant effects on application outcomes, suggesting that behavioural nudging in a setting where it is implemented as part of a more intensive widening participation programme is not effective at increasing higher education application rates. These results add to recent evidence regarding the potential impact of nudging in education by studying such interventions within a busy intervention space.

Learning gain in higher education, specifically the development of subject-adjacent skills, abilities and competencies, is of key scholarly and policy relevance. However, little research focuses on students’ broad understandings of learning gain. This paper takes a phenomenographic approach to explore students’ conceptions of learning gain, and how these may differ by subject and stage of study. Drawing on thirty-three qualitative interviews with a diverse group of undergraduate and postgraduate students across four subjects in three UK universities, this paper derives three distinct categories of understanding in relation to learning gain, increasing in complexity. The first category, naïve understandings, is characterised by short-term learning goals, the prioritisation of surface approaches to learning including memorisation, with subject knowledge more important than skills. Motivations to learn are broadly extrinsic and related to assessments. The second category, emergent understandings, features greater awareness of approaches to learning, including structured planning of learning activities in response to a range of goals, and pragmatic responses to desirable learning outcomes. There is growing recognition of links between subject-specific and generic skills, and adaptation features strongly. The most sophisticated category, comprehensive understandings, is characterised by flexible learning goals, the acknowledgment of the independent nature of higher education learning and strong self-regulation, with deep approaches to learning consciously prioritised. Dynamic views of knowledge prevail, which distinguish this category from the other two. These categories of understanding grow in complexity with study stage, and also vary by subject of study, with interactions present in relation to prioritised aspects of learning gain, views of change and how explicit aspects of learning gain are made within the subject of study. Any attempt to capture learning gain for its improvement would therefore need to encompass a variety of aspects of learning gain, contextualised for subject and stage and include a student perspective.