| Abstract: | This paper is about changing concepts of equity in UK higher education. In particular, it charts the moves from concepts about
gender equality as about women’s education as a key issue in twentieth century higher education to questions of men’s education
in the twenty-first century. These changing concepts of equity are linked to wider social and economic transformations, the
expansion of higher education and the growth in the knowledge economy, or what has been called ‘academic capitalism’. Feminist
theorists and activists, often called second wave feminists, developed concepts of gender equality in education, including
higher education in the twentieth century, and these have been incorporated into higher education and policies with the expansions
of higher education, especially around notions of widening participation. Notions of widening participation in policy and
practice arenas focus on equity as about social class, socio-economic disadvantage, ethnicity and race, rather than specifically
on gender questions. Equity is now twinned with diversity and where gender is now invoked it is largely about young and working
class men’s disadvantage in relation to higher education. In this paper, I will also provide research evidence from the UK’s
Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) which has been the UK’s biggest ever initiative in education research about
equity and diversity as currently conceived in UK higher education. I will show how gender has been incorporated with diversity
questions and has lost its critical and feminist edge. I conclude with addressing questions about the future of higher education
policies and practices to address questions of equity and diversity, attempting to counter the systemic inequalities in current
forms of UK higher education. There are opportunities for developing new, critical and feminist pedagogies. More inclusive
or ‘connectionist’ approaches, rather than ‘teaching to the test’, would engage socially diverse men and women students in
a range of higher education subjects and settings. |
