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Based on data drawn from ten cohorts of students successfully completing a first degree, this paper examines Government higher education (HE) policy and changes in its effects in practice over a period of ten years until 2008. In 1998, Government policy on HE was set to make HE more inclusive of previously under‐represented groups. These groups included students from semi‐skilled or unskilled family backgrounds and from socially deprived localities. By the year 2010, a target was set to have 50 per cent of 18‐30 year‐old individuals experiencing HE. Educational standards were to be maintained. Another identified under‐represented group was students with disabilities. This paper addresses the relationship between HE policy and its effects in practice in relation to both groups. Changes in the numbers and the first degree results of cohorts of successful male and female students with and without disabilities were analysed annually between the years 1998/99 (Cohort 1) and 2007/8 (Cohort 10). The numbers and the first degree results of successful disabled (nine categories of disability) and non‐disabled male and female students were analysed. To date, results from an overall total of 2,588,792 successful students have been examined. A Government announcement in the autumn of 2009 limited access to first degree courses. Has a metaphorical “end of the line” towards greater inclusion in HE been reached?

The pattern of food prosecutions in more recent times has remained relatively unchanged. Most have been taken under Section 2, Food and Drugs Act, 1955, even for foods which have obviously been unfit for human consumption. The Section because of its wider application has distinct procedural advantages. A few local authorities routinely use Section 8 successfully; it probably depends upon a more liberal interpretation and understanding by local justices. The five‐year study of food prosecutions, (BFJ 1971, 73, 39), separated them into a number of well‐defined groups and showed that those for the presence of foreign material were the majority and remained fairly constant throughout the period; mouldy foods increased during the five years and then remained steady as the second largest single group. The foods most commonly affected and the foreign matter commonly present could be seen; neither changed much during the period of the survey.

Most organisations attempting to implement equal opportunity with regard to race issues have concentrated on policy formulation, monitoring and training. Despite recent criticism, racism awareness training has been frequently adopted, often in isolation from developments in other human resource functions. However, strategic integration of all the HRM functions is necessary if equal opportunity objectives are to be achieved. Drawing on empirical research in assessment centres and on interorganisational collaboration, it is argued that this requires developments in recruitment, selection, training, career development, appraisal and reward functions and attention to issues of cultural change.