1. Quality and Access: a zero-sum game
Peter Scott
Commissioner for Fair Access

2. Plan of presentation Introductory remarks Expansion, access & quality
Historical patterns
Defining ‘success’
New landscapes of ‘quality’
My role as Commissioner for Fair Access
Conclusion & reflections

3. Quality & standards in a mass system
Ten-fold expansion in student numbers since 1960s
Participation explosion (UK: < 10% - 50%, South Korea: 80%)
A new system: more than half of UK universities established since 1960
Drop-out rates still low (by international standards)
Higher proportion of ‘good’ degrees (grade inflation?)
Rapid growth in ‘graduate’ jobs in knowledge economy – but graduate under-employment?

4. Future prospects…
Correlation between entry grades, continuation rates, attainment levels…
…but students on access pathways perform well (with right support)
Socio-economic & cultural barriers as significant as academic ‘deficits’
Scalability of access pathways
Fitting ‘non-standard’ students into ‘standard’ systems

5. Definitions of ‘success’
CONTINUATION: low wastage rates (too low?), ‘drop-out’ >> ‘stop-out’, more flexible study patterns
ATTAINMENT: rising proportion of ‘good’ degrees…but dominance of ‘performance’ culture / other outcomes of HE
EMPLOYMENT: volatility / permeability of graduate’ and ‘non-graduate’ jobs, cognitive demands & occupational hierarchies, post-industrial (& post-professional?) workforce

6. Changing ‘quality’ landscapes
Policy / practice & management shifts – but also new intellectual landscapes
New challenges: internal evolution of disciplines, new subjects, growth of interdisciplinary courses…
Going beyond the two Ps (peer review & process)
Different paths to knowledge: academic – experiential, limitations of ‘academic apparatus’?

7. Commissioner for Fair Access
Proliferation of ‘Tsars’
‘Agitator’ not regulator
Establishing a presence:
Visits
Talks
Briefings (applications, contextual admissions…)
Annual report

8. Contextual admissions
Not new: universities have always varied entry requirements
Greater transparency / readability
Bolder use of adjusted offers >> access thresholds…
Developing academic rationales not just meeting access targets
Re-thinking continuation / attainment expectations?

9. Articulation - HNs >> degrees
Half of HN students receive no credit - unfair to students, wasteful to taxpayers
‘Innocent until proved guilty’ (full, i.e. 2 year, credit as starting point)
Differences in ‘learning cultures’ between HNs & degrees?
Imbalance of articulation (post-1992 universities)
Wider bias against professional / vocational higher education?

10. Access & outreach
Scale up - need for increased volume (craft industry >>> mass production?)
Join up - improving transferability of experiences
Evaluating effectiveness / spreading good practice [Framework for Fair Access}

11. Conclusions – two lessons…
ACCESS & QUALITY: limitations of fitting ‘non-standard’ students into ‘standard’ systems, impacts of social & intellectual change, re-thinking ’success’ & ‘quality’
FAIR ACCESS(1) using skills of all the people; (2) civic / human rights; (3) preserving democracy in an age of ‘populism’ (Trump, Brexit, fundamentalism…)