ABSTRACT
Beginning with the ways in which higher education in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and the United States has been transformed in recent times, and the arguments used by government for that transformation, this chapter sets out the argument for the use of transparent pedagogies. It explores the economic causes of international massification in the West, which arose partly in response to the huge growth of higher education in non-OECD countries. It then examines the ways in which diversity and social inclusion, more generally, have been discussed in policy terms and in terms of the positioning of people deemed to be socially excluded. The impact of massification on universities is then explored – in terms of both
their relative positioning on league tables, and their various responses to widening the participation of first-in-family students. Which universities provide access? Are they evenly spread? The chapter concludes with a discussion of neoliberalism’s impact on the practices
and protocols of universities, and more particularly, the ways in which universities can intercede to create the conditions whereby all students can experience a critical, transformative education which equips them with the skills to both ‘read the world’ but also act within it (Freire 2000; Tapp 2014).
