Vocational institutions, undergraduate degrees: distinction or inequality
Widening participation in higher education is an established policy approach of advanced economies, as a way of advancing equity and social mobility for disadvantaged groups. It is also justified as a way of increasing the human capital of nations and thus improve their ability to compete in a global knowledge economy.
Much of the resulting research and practice has focused on the higher education offered by universities. In this project we sought to identify the effects on equity of broadening participation to undergraduate degrees through the recent expansion of higher education offered by vocational institutions. We also sought to understand the effects of these ‘higher vocational education’ degrees on enabling the higher education system to respond to the global drivers for social and economic restructuring through new forms of distinction.
The research provides policy-relevant knowledge for institutions and governments. It also signals a new direction for the higher education field more broadly, about what counts as distinctive forms of higher education and about higher education’s equity functions.
PI and Co-Is - International Collaborators
Lead Investigators:
Prof Sue Webb – Monash University, Australia
Dr Shaun Rawolle – Deakin University, Australia
Dr Steven Hodge – Griffith University, Australia
Prof Trevor Gale – University of Glasgow, School of Education
Prof Ann-Marie Bathmaker – University of Birmingham
The Project Team also included:
Dr Lizzie Knight (Research Fellow and Project Manager) – Victoria University, Australia
Dr Stephen Parker (Research Fellow) – University of Glasgow, School of Education
Start and End Date
28 May 2017 – 28 May 2020
Funder and Funding Amount
Australian Research Council, $AU396,500
Related Publications
Articles
Sinclair, A., & Webb, S. (2021) Academic identity in a changing Australian higher education space: the higher education in vocational institution perspective. International Journal of Training Research, 1-20. (doi:10.1080/14480220.2020.1824874)
Koshy, P., Webb, S., Dockery, A. M., & Knight, E. (2021). Bachelor degree participation in vocational institutions: examining the determinants of participation. International Journal of Training Research, 1-15. (doi:10.1080/14480220.2020.1830838)
Webb, S., Bathmaker, A.-M., Gale, T., Hodge, S., Parker, S. and Rawolle, S. (2017) Higher vocational education and social mobility: educational participation in Australia and England. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 69(1), pp. 147-167. (doi:10.1080/13636820.2016.1269359)
Edited Book
Knight, E., Bathmaker, A.-M., Moodie, G., Orr, K., Webb, S. and Wheelahan, L. (Eds.) (2021 in press) Equity and access to high skills through higher vocational education. Palgrave.
Book Chapter
Gale, T. (2021) Higher vocational education as a work of art. In: Knight, E., Bathmaker, A.-M., Moodie, G., Orr, K., Webb, S. and Wheelahan, L. (eds.) Equity and Access to High Skills Through Higher Vocational Education. Palgrave. (In Press)
Reports
Webb, S., Rawolle, S., Hodge, S., Bathmaker, A-M., Gale, T. and Knight, E. (2020) Vocational Institutions, Undergraduate Degrees. Dissemination Report. Melbourne: Monash University. Available online here.
Webb, S., Rawolle, S., Hodge, S., Gale, T., Bathmaker, A-M., Knight, E. and Parker, S. (2019) Degrees of Difference, Examining the Scope, Provision and Equity Effects of Degrees in Vocational Institutions. ARC Discovery 170101885 Interim Project Report. Melbourne: Monash University. Available online here.
Sector outputs
Webb, S., Knight, E., Rawolle, S. and Hodge, S. (2020) Vocational Institutions, Undergraduate Degrees - Looking to the future. Recorded Webinar. Adelaide: NCVER. Available online here.
Hodge, S., Webb, S., Rawolle, S. and Knight, E. (2019) Vocational Institutions, Undergraduate Degrees ARC Discovery Project Report, Research Today. NSW: AVETRA. Available online here.
Conference Papers
Bathmaker, A.-M., Graf, L., Orr, K., Powell, J., Webb, S., & Wheelahan, L. (2018). Higher
level vocational education: The route to high skills and productivity as well as greater equity? An international comparative analysis. In C. N Gele & B. E. Stalder (Eds.), Trends in vocational education and training research. Proceedings of the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Vocational Education and Training Network (VETNET) (pp. 53–60). http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1319628
Hodge, S., Rawolle, S., Webb, S., Bathmaker, A. & Gale, T. (2016) What does VET bring to higher education that is distinctive?, in AVETRA 2016: Proceedings of the 19th Annual Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association Conference, Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association, Crows Nest, N.S.W., pp. 1-13.
Conference Presentations, Peer-Reviewed
Parker, S., Knight, E., Gale, T., & Webb, S. (2019) Rethinking associations between students’ socioeconomic backgrounds and their aspirations for higher education: the case of higher vocational education degrees. Paper presented at the Annual International Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE), Brisbane, Australia, 2-5 December.
Webb, S., Parker, S., Gale, T., Hodge, S. and Knight, E. (2019) Higher Vocational Education Students' Archives of Experience and Accessing College-Based Degrees. Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association (BERA), Annual Conference, Manchester, UK, 10-12 September.
Webb, S., Knight, E., Hodge, S. & Rawolle, S. (2019) “You just do what you want to do” – drawing on different archives of experience in higher vocational education in Australia. Paper presented at the Annual International Conference of the European Educational Research Association (EERA), Hamburg, Germany, 3-6 September.
Parker, S., Knight, E., Gale, T. and Webb, S. (2019) The Role of Students’ Archives of Experience in Selecting Higher Vocational. Paper presented at the Annual International Conference of the European Educational Research Association (EERA), Hamburg, Germany, 3-6 September.
Parker, S., Knight, E., Gale, T. and Webb, S. (2019) Occupational outcomes’ influence on students’ choices of higher vocational education in Australia. Paper presented at the 28th Annual National Vocational Education and Training Research (NCVER) conference, Adelaide, Australia, 10-12 July.
Hodge, S., Webb, S., Knight, E. and Rawolle, S. (2019) Higher vocational education – how does it inform the relation between tertiary education and labour market outcomes? Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association, Parramatta, NSW.
Webb, S., Parker, S., Gale, T., Knight, E., Hodge, S and Rawolle, S. (2019) Higher vocational education – what does it mean for vocational education? Paper presented at the Journal of Vocational Education and Training (JVET) conference, Oxford, UK, 28-30 June.
Webb, S., Knight, E., Hodge, S. and Rawolle, S. (2019) ‘A degree is a degree’: thinking with Bourdieu and Bernstein to understand vocational institution degrees in a high participation system. 5th International Pathways Collaborative Symposium, 27 June 2019: Theoretically informed research on pathways.
Webb, S., Knight, E., Hodge, S. and Rawolle, S. (2018) New forms of distinction and equity or continuing inequalities: analysing the role of non-university providers in Australian higher education. Society for Research in Higher Education 2018, Annual Research Conference, SRHE International Conference on Research into Higher Education, Newport, Wales, UK.
Rawolle, S., Knight, E., Webb, S. and Hodge, S. (2018) What does higher vocational education bring to higher education that is distinctive? Australian Association for Research in Education, Sydney, Australia.
Sinclair, A., Webb, S., Knight, E., Hodge, S. and Rawolle, S. (2018) Academic Identity in a Changing Australian Higher Education Space: the Higher education in vocational Education Perspective. Australian Association for Research in Education 2018, Sydney, Australia.
Webb, S., Knight, E., Hodge, S. and Rawolle, S. (2018) Higher vocational education – what does this mean for vocational education? World Congress of the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics, Melbourne, Australia.
Webb, S., Knight, E.,Hodge, S. and Rawolle, S. (2018) What does higher vocational education bring to higher education that is distinctive? Paper presented at the Annual International Conference of the European Educational Research Association (EERA), Bolzano, Italy, 4-7 September.
Webb, S., Knight, E., Hodge, S. and Rawolle, S. (2018) What does higher vocational education bring to higher education that is distinctive? 3rd International ARPCE 2018, Harris Manchester College, Oxford, England.
Knight, E., Webb, S., Hodge, S. and Rawolle, S. (2018) How does higher education provider type affect graduate outcomes in Australia? Warwick University Institute for Employment Research Symposium on the political economy of higher education and training. July 2018, Warwick, England.
Knight, E., Webb, S., Hodge, S. and Rawolle, S. (2018) Higher vocational education – what does it mean for vocational education? 5th International Conference on Employer Engagement and Training: 5-6 July 2018, London, England.
Webb, S., Knight, E., Bathmaker, A., Gale, T., Hodge, S. and Rawolle, S. (2017) What does higher vocational education bring to higher education that is distinctive?. Annual Research Conference, SRHE International Conference on Research into Higher Education. Newport, Wales, UK.
Webb, S., Hodge, S., Bathmaker, A., Gale, T., Rawolle, S. and Knight, E. (2017) What does higher vocational education bring to higher education that is distinctive? Higher vocational education, pathways and social inequality: implications for research and policy. JVET The 3rd International Pathways Collaborative Symposium held on 6 July 2017.
Webb, S., Hodge, S., Bathmaker, A., Gale, T. and Rawolle, S. (2017) Building a community of practice for research impact on the VET-HE borderland. AVETRA 2017: Proceedings of the 20th Annual Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association Conference, Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association, Melbourne, Australia.