Introduction

This piece is something of a call to arms: highlighting the thinking behind the World Congress series. It stresses the need, whilst always remaining aware of local priority issues, to move away from thinking only in national or regional terms and toward a model of policy and action which acknowledges the global dimensions of access and participation in higher education.

The speech argues that, in the absence of such a broader perspective, the kind of ‘radical change of thinking’ around widening participation envisioned by the EAN and like-minded individuals and organisations, and upon which the Congresses are premised, is unlikely to materialise. Change on the ground is unlikely to come about as a result.

The piece emphasises the importance of the student voice but also calls out to international business leaders, social entrepreneurs and those working in social media and communication technologies. They will give the Congresses the credentials to influence those who ultimately matter most: governments and international agencies.

In the event, the World Congress ‘series’ was just two congresses. It transmogrified into what is today World Access to Higher Education Day (WAHED), which is going from strength to strength in terms of the number and range of its participant organisations and individuals from across the globe. The final chapter in the present volume is a short article which appeared in the WAHED News in 2020.

Despite being quite different in organisation and structure, WAHED remains true to the underlying rationale of the World Congress, which was first mooted over a conference dinner at the 18th EAN Annual International Conference held at York St John University – see Chapter 3 in the present volume.

I encourage all widening participation practitioners, as well as academics and researchers committed to widening engagement of under-represented groups and communities with higher education, to try and facilitate their institution becoming involved with WAHED. In my opinion, there is currently no larger, more diverse or potentially influential network in this field.