Publisher's Synopsis
Exploring the reality of access to higher education for working class and ethnic minority adults, this book contains the reflections of people on what held them back from engaging with further and higher education for so long. They go on to explain what eventually motivated them to aim for university and how they experienced life and study when they got there. The findings of this four-year action research project reveal paradoxes in current national policy and institutional practice on widening participation and indicate what needs to change if the chances of mature students from non-traditional backgrounds are to improve. The author shows how the diversity of non-traditional students' experience could be harnessed to promote learning and to improve the life chances of such students.
