Barriers to access and participation in higher education: The case for a 'bounded agency' perspective

Barriers to access and participation in higher education: The case for a 'bounded agency' perspective

Efforts to widen the participation of non-traditional students in higher education have seen the implementation of a range of pathways programs in many universities. While this has provided non-traditional students with a range of alternative pathways into higher education, ongoing concerns persist around issues of student access, participation, and retention in these programs. The notion of barriers will be used as a conceptual lens to illustrate and examine issues of access and participation in a university pathways program. The conceptualisation of these barriers will be considered, and a case will be made for avoiding deficit conceptualisations that limit institutional accountability and disregard the many other factors that produce and perpetuate barriers. The notion of bounded agency is offered as an alternative framing of barriers in pathways programs, as it recognises that students’ abilities to navigate their educational journey may be constrained by a wide range of external factors. A bounded agency approach to issues of access and participation in pathways programs can highlight the role played by policy, pedagogy and institutions in constraining learning and provide insights into how these issues may be addressed effectively.

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