Introduction

Stuart Billingham

From Access to Engagement and Beyond

ISBN: 978-1-80382-040-8, eISBN: 978-1-80382-037-8

Publication date: 14 July 2022

Citation

Billingham, S. (2022), "Introduction", From Access to Engagement and Beyond (Great Debates in Higher Education), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 137-137. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80382-037-820221020

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022 Stuart Billingham. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited


The very short piece which follows was designed, as the Editorial, to set the context for various pieces which followed it in this 3rd Issue of the European Access Network (EAN) e-Newsletter.

It focusses mainly on how the ‘discourse of disability’ within and across education policy and practice had changed over a period of 30 years preceding it. It introduced, very, very briefly, what these changes had meant to some of the practices in post-school education. The Editorial conclusion succinctly captures what this piece was trying to do:

Gone, thankfully, are the days when discussions about disability and widening participation in further and higher education meant little more than installing wheelchair ramps at entrances of buildings. What, though, does it mean now and where is it going?