Access, Participation and Higher Education: Policy and Practice

At the start of the twentieth century, higher education was the preserve of a privileged, almost exclusively male minority. Today more than 30 per cent of people in the United Kingdom embark on some kind of higher education. Over half of university students are women, and greater opportunities for study at all stages of life are widely available. Recently the government announced that it has the explicit aim of increasing participation in higher education to 50 per cent by 2010.