Marketing participation? Student ambassadors’ contribution to widening participation schemes in engineering and medicine at two contrasting universities.

Gartland, Clare (2013) Marketing participation? Student ambassadors’ contribution to widening participation schemes in engineering and medicine at two contrasting universities. Journal of widening participation and lifelong learning, 14 (3). pp. 102-119. ISSN 1466-6529

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Abstract

Under New Labour administrations, employing student ambassadors for widening participation (WP) outreach work became popular with higher education institutions (HEIs). Ambassadors were held to be effective in aspiration- and attainment-raising work and cited as role models for diverse groups of pupils by policy-makers and practitioners.

The focus of this paper is student ambassadors’ WP work at two universities, one old and one new, and their WP outreach work in medicine and engineering. It draws from a larger study deploying in-depth ethnography and drawing on approaches from across the social sciences to trace the discourses surrounding these student ambassadors.

Findings reveal student ambassadors’ primary contribution is not to widen participation but to promote and market their own institutions and courses. However, through marketing particular courses, ambassadors can contribute to disrupting and challenging pupils’ gendered, raced and classed trajectories within science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subject areas.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Engineering; higher education; marketing; medicine; student ambassadors; widening participation
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
L Education > L Education (General)
Divisions: Faculty of Arts, Business & Applied Social Science > Department of Young People & Education
Depositing User: Kristina Hearnden
Date Deposited: 30 Sep 2015 08:07
Last Modified: 25 Jun 2018 14:16
URI: https://oars.uos.ac.uk/id/eprint/104

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