Widening participation and the changing risks of higher education: Working‐class women's pathways via access courses across two decades

Abstract Widening participation (WP) in higher education (HE) remains a central concern within UK educational and social policy. It seeks to address the underrepresentation of specific social groups by tailoring university access to their distinct needs. Mature working‐class students are one such under‐represented group, yet they have recently largely disappeared from this policy discourse. The journey for those entering university via an Access to HE (Access) course provides valuable context to the WP agenda. This paper presents a comparative analysis of qualitative studies conducted two decades apart, examining the experiences of mature working‐class women entering HE via Access to HE Diploma courses. It evidences the ongoing value of progressing into HE for mature working‐class learners. The research foregrounds practitioner‐led enquiry as a legitimate epistemological approach, offering nuanced insights into mature students' educational trajectories. Central to this analysis is the concept of risk, both symbolic and material, and its impact on identity construction and decision‐making. We explore how notions of risk manifested themselves to participants in each study, particularly how changes to funding of both Access courses and university study itself have bought financial risks into sharper focus for the later cohort of students. This paper argues for a re‐evaluation of WP policies to better align with the lived realities of non‐traditional learners.