Widening access to higher education: Learning from the lived experiences of Gypsy/Traveller and working-class communities might enhance inclusion policy and practice outcomes

This paper draws on critical theory (Fromm 1941;Freire 1974;Gray 2014), to explore educational equity and widening access policies in Scotland for two underrepresented groups: students from Gypsy/Traveller communities (Scottish Government 2017), and those from working class and poor backgrounds (Scottish Government 2016).Scotland has a devolved policy model whereby the policy landscape is forged by both national and local or institutional policy directives.This should make institutions more aware of the barriers to widening access and make policies more responsive to the needs of underrepresented groups.However, the evidence indicates that challenges to widening access persist.The paper argues that under-represented groups are sometimes viewed as problematic.Sensitisation around the lived experiences of non-traditional groups would enable national and Higher Education Institution policies to deliver better outcomes that challenge the existing status quo and interrupt social reproduction and inequity across Scotland's education system and society.