Promoting the Inclusion of Socially Disadvantaged and Disabled Students in European Higher Education

Abstract

The Bologna Process (BP) seeks to harmonise higher education (HE) across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The social dimension of the BP was adopted to encourage member states to develop widening access measures. Countries were free to interpret guidance as they saw fit and there were no penalties for non-compliance. This chapter considers the implications of this approach for the implementation of widening access strategies in relation to disabled students and those from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. We use Eurostudent Survey and Eurostat data to analyse the inclusion of these groups of students in different countries, commenting on interpretational difficulties arising due to non-harmonised definitions and categories. It is argued that allowing countries a high degree of latitude in interpreting the meaning of widening access has resulted in widely different approaches. Harmonised categories would be helpful in ensuring greater consistency, but these might be resisted on the grounds of infringing the autonomy of individual states. Tensions between national and supra-national policy arise in many social policy fields across the EHEA and will certainly need to be addressed in the post-COVID world to avoid the entrenchment of existing social divisions.

Citation

Riddell, S. and Weedon, E. (2023), "Promoting the Inclusion of Socially Disadvantaged and Disabled Students in European Higher Education", Kushnir, I. and Eta, E.A. (Ed.) Towards Social Justice in the Neoliberal Bologna Process, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 41-54. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-880-820231003