Publications by year
2023
Harrison N, Baker Z, Ellis K, Stevenson J (2023). A praxis-based perspective on supporting care-experienced students to thrive in higher education using the capabilities approach. European Journal of Higher Education, 1-20.
Harrison N, Dixon J, Sanders-Ellis D, Ward J, Asker P (2023). Care leavers’ transition into the labour market in England. Nuffield Foundation, Oxford, Rees Centre.
2022
Harrison N, Baker Z, Stevenson J (2022). Employment and further study outcomes for care-experienced graduates in the UK.
High Educ (Dordr),
83(2), 357-378.
Abstract:
Employment and further study outcomes for care-experienced graduates in the UK.
Life outcomes for people who spent time in the care of the state as children ('care-experienced') are known to be significantly lower, on average, than for the general population. The reasons for this are complex and multidimensional, relating to social upheaval, disrupted schooling, mental and physical health issues and societal stigmatisation. Previous studies across several countries have demonstrated that they are significantly less likely to participate in higher education and more likely to withdraw early. However, little is currently known about their outcomes after graduation. This paper therefore explores the initial outcomes for the 1,010 full-time students identified as care-experienced within the cohort graduating from an undergraduate degree programme in the UK in 2016/17-the most recent year for which data are available. They were found to be slightly more likely to be unemployed and less likely to be in work (and particularly professional work) than their peers, but, conversely, more likely to be studying. These differences largely disappeared once background educational and demographic factors were controlled. The paper discusses the relationship between care-experience and other sites of inequality, concluding that care-experienced graduates are crucially over-represented in groups that are disadvantaged in the graduate labour market-e.g. by ethnicity, disability or educational history. This intersectional inequality largely explains their lower graduate outcomes. While there are important limitations with the data available, this speaks for the transformational potential of higher education in enabling care-experienced graduates to transcend childhood adversity. Recommendations for national policy and local practices conclude the paper.
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Author URL.
Harrison N (2022). How do we know What we think we Know – and Are We Right? Five New Questions about Research, Practice and Policy on Widening Access to Higher Education. In Dent S, Mountford-Zimdars A, Burke C (Eds.) Theory of Change: Debates and Applications to Access and Participation in Higher Education, Emerald Group Publishing.
Baker Z, Harrison N, Stevenson J, Wakeling P (2022). Patterns of postgraduate transitions amongst care-experienced graduates in the United Kingdom.
CAMBRIDGE JOURNAL OF EDUCATION,
52(3), 349-368.
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Sebba J, Brown A, Denton-Calabrese T, Harrison N, Luke N, Neagu M, Rees A (2022). Phase one evaluation of the virtual school head’s extension of duties to children with a social worker and the post-16 pupil premium plus pilot. Department for Education, London, Department for Education.
2021
Harrison N, Atherton G (2021). Concluding thoughts: Making meaning from diverse narratives. In (Ed) Marginalised Communities in Higher Education: Disadvantage, Mobility and Indigeneity, 232-243.
Harrison N, Atherton G (2021). Introduction: Marginalised communities in higher education. In (Ed) , 1-12.
Harrison N, Atherton G (2021).
Marginalised Communities in Higher Education: Disadvantage, Mobility and Indigeneity.Abstract:
Marginalised Communities in Higher Education: Disadvantage, Mobility and Indigeneity
Abstract.
Bovill H, Harrison N, Smith H, Bennett V, McKenzie L (2021). Mature female learners activating agency after completion of an education foundation degree: professional progression and the teacher shortage crisis.
RESEARCH PAPERS IN EDUCATION,
36(2), 196-215.
Author URL.
Harrison N, O'Neill L, Connelly G (2021). The journeys of care-experienced students in England and Scotland. In (Ed) Marginalised Communities in Higher Education: Disadvantage, Mobility and Indigeneity, 15-35.
Carter S, Smith K, Harrison N (2021). Working in the borderlands: critical perspectives on doctoral education.
TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION,
26(3), 283-292.
Author URL.
2020
Harrison N (2020). Patterns of participation in higher education for care-experienced students in England: why has there not been more progress?.
STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION,
45(9), 1986-2000.
Author URL.
2019
Harrison N, Luckett K (2019). Experts, knowledge and criticality in the age of 'alternative facts': re-examining the contribution of higher education.
TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION,
24(3), 259-271.
Author URL.
Harrison N (2019). Students-as-insurers: rethinking 'risk' for disadvantaged young people considering higher education in England.
JOURNAL OF YOUTH STUDIES,
22(6), 752-771.
Author URL.
2018
Harrison N, Davies S, Harris R, Waller R (2018). Access, participation and capabilities: theorising the contribution of university bursaries to students' well-being, flourishing and success.
CAMBRIDGE JOURNAL OF EDUCATION,
48(6), 677-695.
Author URL.
Harrison N, Waller R (2018). Challenging discourses of aspiration: the role of expectations and attainment in access to higher education.
BRITISH EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL,
44(5), 914-938.
Author URL.
Harrison N (2018). Using the lens of 'possible selves' to explore access to higher education: a new conceptual model for practice, policy, and research.
Social Sciences,
7(10).
Abstract:
Using the lens of 'possible selves' to explore access to higher education: a new conceptual model for practice, policy, and research
The concept of 'aspiration-raising' has been ubiquitous in the discussion of differential rates of participation in higher education in England for many years. Potential students from disadvantaged backgrounds are constructed as setting their sights too low and therefore not considering higher education or ignoring elite universities that they could access. However, it is increasingly understood that aspiration-raising is unable to explain patterns of participation and that it risks 'blaming the victim' by failing to appreciate the structural constraints forged through their sociocultural context. The purpose of this paper is to present an alternative lens in the form of 'possible selves'. This is drawn from the discipline of psychology and aims to explain how we all conceive and develop visions of ourselves in future states. These images create a motivational impetus for actions in the present in order to achieve a like-to-be self-or evade a like-to-avoid self. Notably, the theory takes specific account of the individual's expectations and the importance of having a clear pathway towards a long-term destination. This paper provides an overview of the foundational theory and empirical evidence for a general readership, before presenting a new conceptual model focused on access to higher education. This is then used to explore the principles that might underpin interventions to support participation from disadvantaged groups within highly stratified systems, as well as suggesting a new policy agenda and priorities for future research.
Abstract.
2017
Harrison N, Waller R (2017). Evaluating outreach activities: overcoming challenges through a realist ‘small steps’ approach.
Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education,
21(2-3), 81-87.
Abstract:
Evaluating outreach activities: overcoming challenges through a realist ‘small steps’ approach
Practitioners are being placed under increasing pressure to evaluate the success of their outreach activities, both by government and by their own universities. Based in a reductionist doctrine of ‘evidence-based practice’, there is a desire to demonstrate the effectiveness and value-for-money across activities that now account for around £175 million per year across England. This article examines some of the difficulties in evaluating the complex social world of outreach and suggests a ‘small steps’ approach to overcome some of these. This uses the idea of a transformative ‘theory of change’ as a framework for understanding the particular contribution made by discrete activities within a wider portfolio, providing a more reliable form of inference than attempts to ‘prove’ impact over longer timeframes.
Abstract.
Harrison N, McCaig C (2017). Examining the epistemology of impact and success of educational interventions using a reflective case study of university bursaries.
BRITISH EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL,
43(2), 290-309.
Author URL.
Harrison N (2017). Patterns of participation in a period of change: Social trends in english higher education from 2000 to 2016. In (Ed)
Higher Education and Social Inequalities: University Admissions, Experiences, and Outcomes, 54-80.
Abstract:
Patterns of participation in a period of change: Social trends in english higher education from 2000 to 2016
Abstract.
Harrison N, Waller R (2017). Success and Impact in Widening Participation Policy: What Works and How Do We Know?.
HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY,
30(2), 141-160.
Author URL.
2016
Mountford-Zimdars A, Harrison N (2016).
Access to Higher Education Theoretical Perspectives and Contemporary Challenges., Taylor & Francis.
Abstract:
Access to Higher Education Theoretical Perspectives and Contemporary Challenges
Abstract.
Harrison N, Agnew S (2016). Individual and Social Influences on Students’ Attitudes to Debt: a Cross-National Path Analysis Using Data from England and New Zealand.
Higher Education Quarterly,
70(4), 332-353.
Abstract:
Individual and Social Influences on Students’ Attitudes to Debt: a Cross-National Path Analysis Using Data from England and New Zealand
This study examines the construction of debt attitudes among 439 first-year undergraduates in England and New Zealand. It works from a conceptual model that predicts that attitudes will be partly determined by a range of social factors, mediated through personality and ‘financial literacy’. Path analysis is used to explore this model. The proposed model was found to be basically sound, with some notable negative findings. Socio-economic status was found to have a negligible role in determining debt attitudes, while the role of financial literacy was limited to reducing the likelihood of seeing debt as useful for lifestyle expenditure. Debt anxiety was found to be higher among students with a general predisposition to anxiety and inversely related to viewing student debt as a form of educational investment. It is concluded that student debt attitudes are multidimensional and individualised, challenging simplistic ideas of debt aversion in earlier literature.
Abstract.
d’Aguiar S, Harrison N (2016). Returning from earning: UK graduates returning to postgraduate study, with particular respect to STEM subjects, gender and ethnicity.
Journal of Education and Work,
29(5), 584-613.
Abstract:
Returning from earning: UK graduates returning to postgraduate study, with particular respect to STEM subjects, gender and ethnicity
It has been argued by some (e.g. the Confederation of British Industry [CBI]) that graduates lack the skills that render them employable. In particular, graduates of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects are often portrayed as being unready for the world of work. This study uses three large-scale national data-sets from the UK to explore this assertion, including the results of the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education surveys. It reports analysis of 22,207 individuals who graduated from their first degree in 2007, and works from the hypothesis that those entering the workforce and then returning for taught postgraduate study are primarily doing so due to underemployment in the period following graduation. The study uses binary logistic regression and finds that a range of educational, demographic and employment-based variables have a significant relationship with the propensity to return for taught postgraduate study. of particular note, those returning tend to be high achievers from elite universities in low-skill work after graduation, as well as women and those from minority ethnic communities; this suggests a mix of individual and structural factors at work. In addition, STEM graduates were significantly less likely to return, apparently challenging the argument advanced by the CBI.
Abstract.
Harrison N (2016). Student choices under uncertainty: Bounded rationality and behavioural economics. In (Ed) Access to Higher Education: Theoretical perspectives and contemporary challenges, 85-100.
2015
Harrison N, McCaig C (2015). An ecological fallacy in higher education policy: the use, overuse and misuse of ‘low participation neighbourhoods’.
Journal of Further and Higher Education,
39(6), 793-817.
Abstract:
An ecological fallacy in higher education policy: the use, overuse and misuse of ‘low participation neighbourhoods’
One form of ecological fallacy is found in the dictum that ‘you are where you live’ – otherwise expressed in the idea that you can infer significant information about an individual or their family from the prevailing conditions around their home. One expression of this within higher education in the UK has been the use (and, arguably, overuse and misuse) of ‘low participation neighbourhoods’ (LPNs) over the last 15 years. These are areas that have been defined, from historic official data, as having a lower-than-average propensity to send their young people on to university. These LPNs have increasingly become used within the widening participation and social mobility agendas as a proxy for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who have the potential to benefit from higher education, but who would not attend without encouragement, support and/or incentives. In this article, we explore the various uses to which LPNs have been put by policy makers, universities and practitioners, including the targeting of outreach activities, the allocation of funding and the monitoring of the social mix within higher education. We use a range of official data to demonstrate that LPNs have a questionable diagnostic value, with more disadvantaged families living outside them than within them, while they contain a higher-than-expected proportion of relatively advantaged families. We also use content analysis of university policy documents to demonstrate that universities have adopted some questionable practices with regard to LPNs, although some of these are now being actively discouraged.
Abstract.
Harrison N, Agnew S, Serido J (2015). Attitudes to debt among indebted undergraduates: a cross-national exploratory factor analysis.
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC PSYCHOLOGY,
46, 62-73.
Author URL.
Harrison N, James D, Last K (2015). Don't know what you've got 'til it's gone? Skills-led qualifications, secondary school attainment and policy choices.
RESEARCH PAPERS IN EDUCATION,
30(5), 585-608.
Author URL.
Agnew S, Harrison N (2015). Financial literacy and student attitudes to debt: a cross national study examining the influence of gender on personal finance concepts.
JOURNAL OF RETAILING AND CONSUMER SERVICES,
25, 122-129.
Author URL.
Harrison N (2015). Practice, problems and power in 'internationalisation at home': critical reflections on recent research evidence.
TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION,
20(4), 412-430.
Author URL.
Harrison N, Chudry F, Waller R, Hatt S (2015). Towards a typology of debt attitudes among contemporary young UK undergraduates.
Journal of Further and Higher Education,
39(1), 85-107.
Abstract:
Towards a typology of debt attitudes among contemporary young UK undergraduates
The findings of this study suggest that student attitudes are more complex than assumed in some previous research and journalistic commentary, especially with respect to social class. Counterintuitively, many students from lower social-class backgrounds show a positivity about debt as a means of enabling them to access higher-level careers; this is consistent with admissions data following the 2006 increase in tuition fees and student indebtedness. More generally, the mainstream of student attitudes appears to fall between the ‘debt-savvy’ and ‘debt-resigned’ types, with students being relatively well-informed about repayment terms and accepting large-scale indebtedness as ‘normal’, with most students being ‘in the same boat’. The implications of these findings, the limitations of the study and future opportunities for research are discussed.
Abstract.
2014
Waller R, Harrison N, Hatt S, Chudry F (2014). Undergraduates' memories of school-based work experience and the role of social class in placement choices in the UK.
Journal of Education and Work,
27(3), 323-349.
Abstract:
Undergraduates' memories of school-based work experience and the role of social class in placement choices in the UK
This paper reports findings from a study of 49 young first-year UK undergraduates who had undergone one or two weeks of work experience at school between the ages of 14 and 16. Previous studies focusing on the whole school cohort suggested that the nature of work experience placements was strongly predicted by class. In particular, middle class families were seen as being able to secure higher-quality placements than working class families through their higher levels of social capital. This study of young people in the large minority subset subsequently progressing to higher education also found evidence of stereotypical placement choices. However, this was situated in low-quality placements that were irrelevant to the participants' eventual career path. One notable finding was that a significant proportion of working class students had exercised considerable personal agency to secure high-quality placements. This could challenge structuralist interpretations of young people's decision-making, although the possibility of a retrospective construction of an explanatory narrative is noted. This paper concludes that more effort is needed to push academically-able working class young people towards placements that will increase motivation and widen horizons and that government needs to be clearer about its policy aims in this area. © 2012 Taylor & Francis.
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2013
Harrison N (2013). Modelling the demand for higher education by local authority area in England using academic, economic and social data.
BRITISH EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL,
39(5), 793-816.
Author URL.
2012
Harrison N, Hatt S (2012). Expensive and failing? the role of student bursaries in widening participation and fair access in England.
STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION,
37(6), 695-712.
Author URL.
Harrison N (2012). Investigating the impact of personality and early life experiences on intercultural interaction in internationalised universities.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERCULTURAL RELATIONS,
36(2), 224-237.
Author URL.
2011
Harrison N (2011). Have the changes introduced by the 2004 Higher Education Act made higher education admissions in England wider and fairer?.
JOURNAL OF EDUCATION POLICY,
26(3), 449-468.
Author URL.
Harrison N, Chudry F (2011). Overactive, overwrought or overdrawn? the role of personality in undergraduate financial knowledge, decision-making and debt.
Journal of Further and Higher Education,
35(2), 149-182.
Abstract:
Overactive, overwrought or overdrawn? the role of personality in undergraduate financial knowledge, decision-making and debt
The financial situation of undergraduate students remains a high-profile issue within the UK higher education sector, not least due to its perceived relationship with retention, well-being and success. This article probes this question from a new direction, using concepts and approaches from the field of applied psychology to examine how students use various forms of credit and whether personality impacts on borrowing behaviour. The sample in this study comprised 604 undergraduate students at a large UK university. Data were collected by online questionnaire on demographic background, borrowing history, borrowing intentions, financial literacy, personality type and attitudes to money. Using a series of regression analyses, it was found that a tendency towards extraversion was particularly associated with the use of overdrafts and borrowing from family members and that this led to higher anticipated debts on graduation. Neuroticism was found not to have any significant relationship to borrowing behaviour, but it was a significant predictor for student anxiety about money management. The article also reports related findings concerning students' learned borrowing behaviour; the acceleration of student use of commercial borrowing during their course of studies; and the construction and implications of financial literacy. © 2011 UCU.
Abstract.
2010
Harrison N, Hatt S (2010). 'Disadvantaged learners': Who are we targeting? Understanding the targeting of widening participation activity in the United Kingdom using geo-demographic data from southwest England.
Higher Education Quarterly,
64(1), 65-88.
Abstract:
'Disadvantaged learners': Who are we targeting? Understanding the targeting of widening participation activity in the United Kingdom using geo-demographic data from southwest England
This paper analyses the definition of the appropriate target group for widening participation activities advanced by the Higher Education Funding Council for England in their. Targeting Disadvantaged Learners advice to Aimhigher and higher education providers. This definition includes components of area deprivation and higher education participation rates, which are apparently intended to act as a proxy to reach learners from lower socio-economic groups. Through statistical analysis of geo-demographical data from the Southwest region of England, this paper questions whether the HEFCE targeting guidance is likely to meet the policy aims that underpin it and reach the 'disadvantaged learners' of its title. It is found that the geographical proxy tends to miss learners from lower socio-economic groups in areas of wider affluence and those in rural areas. The paper concludes by questioning whether the areas identified by a rigorous application of the targeting guidance are likely to be the most fruitful locations for outreach activities in the short-term given the ingrained, multi-faceted and multi-generational challenges which they face. © 2009 the Authors. Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Abstract.
Harrison N, Peacock N (2010). Cultural distance, mindfulness and passive xenophobia: using Integrated Threat Theory to explore home higher education students' perspectives on 'internationalisation at home'.
BRITISH EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL,
36(6), 877-902.
Author URL.
2009
Peacock N, Harrison N (2009). "It's So Much Easier to Go with What's Easy" "Mindfulness" and the Discourse Between Home and International Students in the United Kingdom.
JOURNAL OF STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION,
13(4), 487-508.
Author URL.
Harrison N, Peacock N (2009). Interactions in the international classroom: the UK perspective. In (Ed) Internationalisation and the Student Voice: Higher Education Perspectives, 125-142.
Harrison N, Hatt S (2009). Knowing the ‘unknowns’: Investigating the students whose social class is not known at entry to higher education.
Journal of Further and Higher Education,
33(4), 347-357.
Abstract:
Knowing the ‘unknowns’: Investigating the students whose social class is not known at entry to higher education
This paper originates from the National Audit Office's 2008 report into widening participation policy in the United Kingdom. The report found that while there appeared to be modest improvements in the proportion of students coming from lower socio-economic groups over the last ten years, reliable analysis was hampered by a high proportion of missing data. In the 2007/08 academic year, the proportion of entrants whose socio-economic status was defined as ‘unknown’ was 26%, up from just 10% a decade earlier. This paper uses a random sample of 1000 such students, aged 18 or 19 on entry, to investigate why they have been designated as ‘unknown’ and what other information can be gleaned from their university application form. It was found that 46% of the sample could in fact be coded to a specific socio-economic grouping from the parental information provided by the student and it was difficult to see why this had not happened. The social profile of these students was comparable to the national picture. A further 23% provided information which was too vague to be coded. The focus of the paper, however, was the 32% of students who either did not provide parental information or who stated that their parents were not working. These students were strongly and disproportionately drawn from areas of high deprivation and low participation in higher education; the precise target of widening participation initiatives, yet they are effectively not acknowledged. This finding causes difficulties for the reliability of official statistics on social class. © 2009, UCU.
Abstract.
2006
Harrison N (2006). The impact of negative experiences, dissatisfaction and attachment on first year undergraduate withdrawal.
Journal of Further and Higher Education,
30(4), 377-391.
Abstract:
The impact of negative experiences, dissatisfaction and attachment on first year undergraduate withdrawal
This paper reports the results of a telephone survey of 151 undergraduates who withdrew in their first year of study at a post-1992 institution. It focuses on the negative experiences which they reported during their time at the university and the ultimate reasons for leaving, exploring in particular issues around choice of course, academic experience, socialization and financial support. From these data and from demographic information held by the university, distinct groupings of similar cases emerge, going some way to illuminating which students leave, when and why. The paper concludes with a discussion around the relationship between dissatisfaction, attachment and student retention, proposing that negative stimuli only go part of the way to explaining withdrawal decisions. © 2006, UCU.
Abstract.
2005
Hatt S, Hannan A, Baxter A, Harrison N (2005). Opportunity knocks? the impact of bursary schemes on students from low-income backgrounds.
STUDIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION,
30(4), 373-388.
Author URL.