Across Europe, the expansion of higher education (HE) has been accompanied by structural changes to HE systems. Different countries have developed various types of institutions offering higher level study alongside traditional universities (Osborne, 2003). In England, these developments have included an increasing emphasis on higher education provision in some of the country’s ‘further education’ colleges. These institutions, which have tended to be associated with tertiary vocational education, are now also involved in the provision of higher education. In addition, there are a number of ‘universities’ which offer courses at sub-degree level, as well as ‘higher’ education courses. Policy support for these developments is based on goals of increasing participation in HE, and of widening participation to students who would not traditionally participate in this level of study. The creation of what amounts to an increasingly differentiated and stratified system raises questions about how students make decisions about future study, and whether experiences of transition have changed in this more complex environment. This paper reports on a project which has investigated widening participation in English higher education focusing on students’ experience of transitions into and through HE in institutions which are providers of both further and higher education. The paper draws on data from qualitative case study fieldwork in four case study institutions, which has involved in-depth studies of the four institutions and has followed 80 students moving between further and higher education. The fieldwork has included interviews with students, tutors and institutional managers, documentary analysis, and the collection of fieldwork observation records. The paper considers the nature and significance of boundaries, transitions and transfers in the case study contexts, taking a socio-cultural approach to understanding the ‘terms of engagement’ in changing forms of higher education. It builds on recent research which has explored teaching and learning cultures in tertiary education (Hodkinson, Biesta and James, 2004), and on work which has investigated higher education cultures, such as the work of Reay (2004) and Reay, David and Ball (2001). Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field and capital (see Bourdieu 1997, 1998) which are used by these authors, are also used to inform this study, as a means of exploring issues of structure and agency in the context of higher education transitions. The paper discusses how institutions, students and lecturers engage in moving between further and higher education in further/higher education institutions. Boundary crossing appears as a key feature in the data, and the paper explores the experience and meanings ascribed to boundary crossings, and considers the implications for widening participation in higher education in England. In presenting this paper at ECER it is hoped to raise questions of commonality and difference across countries, and provide a means of challenging some of the taken-for-granted assumptions in researching single educational systems.

Case studies of four institutions, involving the tracking of 80 students making transitions between different levels of education over one year, interviews with staff, and the collection of a range of institutional data.

Insights into the teaching and learning cultures of English 'dual sector' institutions Understandings of the experience of students making transitions between tertiary and higher education The social justice and equity implications of new forms of stratification in HE