Governments and education systems worldwide have tried using additional cash transfers to encourage school enrolment and attendance, and to reduce the attainment gap between disadvantaged students and their peers. There are now many strands of evidence on the success of such schemes. This paper presents the results of international structured…

In most OECD countries, more women than men enrol in undergraduate degrees. I analyse this gap in enrolment using the elicited subjective beliefs of a sample of 240 17-18-year-olds living in England. I use these beliefs to estimate a discrete choice model. The results from this model can explain the majority of the gender gap in enrolment. Gender…

The month in which we are born affects our experience of and progress through the education system and is known as the relative age effect. This study reports on a project in which the author conducted mixed methods research into the impact of different birth months on enrolment patterns and participant experiences within further education in…

This paper explores national patterns of entry to primary school in England over the past decade. It focuses on deferred entry (where children begin Reception with the cohort below) and delayed entry (where children miss some or all of Reception, and enter Year 1 with their 'normal' cohort). In 2014, the Department for Education's (DfE's) guidance…

Higher education researchers have paid little attention to postgraduate participation. This issue has become more prominent in England following the introduction of high undergraduate fees. Many predicted that master's participation would decline consequently, strengthening known inequalities in access by socio-economic background at master's…

Home BAME students are under-represented on postgraduate courses in England, especially at elite universities, however, there has been little research on why this should be. This research starts to fill this gap, arguing that gatekeepers to postgraduate courses at some of the most elite universities contribute to maintaining white supremacy.…

This chapter describes how one particular Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), created at the University of Southampton, has evolved beyond its core purpose as a promotional tool, to complement and serve purposes and priorities of relevance and importance to wider university strategic aims. It briefly outlines elements of the course design and…

Despite increasing financial pressures on higher education systems throughout the world, many governments remain resolutely opposed to the introduction of tuition fees, and some countries and states where tuition fees have been long established are now reconsidering free higher education. This paper examines the consequences of charging tuition…