Flexible learning and its contribution to widening participation: a synthesis of research

Today the UK's Higher Education Academy has published in its EvidenceNet series a new report entitled, 'Flexible learning and its contribution to widening participation: a synthesis of research' written by Muir Houston [1] (PASCAL Affiliate), Velda McCune and Mike Osborne [2] (PASCAL Co-director), all of the University of Glasgow [3].

Flexibility in the context of widening participation refers to both spatial and temporal matters, namely changes that allow students access to education in locations and modes, and at times that to at least a certain degree are of individuals' rather than institutions' choosing. It also refers to those mechanisms that challenge constructions of what constitutes knowledge at Higher Education level and the means by which knowledge can be acquired and demonstrated such as the recognition and accreditation of prior (experiential) learning (R/AP(E)L), and programmes of independent study, with to quote Percy and Ramsden (1980: p. 15) "its stress on weakened boundaries between subject areas, on supra-disciplinary concepts, and on student control over the way in which knowledge is transmitted". (Osborne, 2006, p. 9)

The full report follows and can also be downloaded below...