Widening participation and a student ‘success’ assemblage: the materialities and mobilities of university

Abstract

This paper takes an assemblage approach to extend knowledge and understanding ofwidening participation (WP) in the United Kingdom. We reflect on the identificationand experiences of a WP student population—how this population has been markedout, labelled, and considered through policy and intervention, alongside the material-ities and mobilities that shape the lived experiences of these students. Using ques-tionnaire findings, narrative interviews, and photo diaries, it draws on a 12‐monthstudy at a London university to explore the factors that have enabled final‐yearundergraduate students from a WP background to stay the course and complete theirprogramme of studies. Our arguments are shaped by the geographical and educa-tional literatures on materialities and mobilities. We bring these together to sketchout a student success assemblage comprising wide‐ranging elements that we framearound identity, support, and resources. Assemblage draws attention to the multiplic-ity of human/non‐human relations that shape student experience and students'capacities for success. Assemblage intersects with university precisely through afocus on experience and, as we suggest, takes on a particular inflexion for studentsfrom a WP background. This underpinning ontological basis to studying WP enablesus to view the university, student experience, and success as being continually pro-duced and reproduced, and coconstituted between the human and non‐human. Uni-versities should attend to student assemblages to better understand the experiencesof and support needed by underrepresented groups in higher education.