Theory of Change speaks to those looking for an academically rigorous discussion of the origins and debates around this approach in Higher Education. Melding together robust academic research with examples of practice, the book provides specific applications of using a Theory of Change across key stages of the student life cycle. The Theory of Change underpinning this book is that national and international practitioners, policy makers, higher education professionals, students and academic faculty will increase awareness and ability to use a Theory of Change in their own work. This, in turn, will mainstream the use which will lead to better interventions and practices. In the field of access and participation in higher education, it will ultimately lead to more disadvantaged students entering and successfully progressing from higher education. This book helps to establish a common lexicon around a Theory of Change approach and enable discussion of demonstrable, meaningful reflections on the 'change' work has on inequalities in higher education access and participation.

Featuring a Prologue by Professor Penny Jane Burke, and Epilogue by Dr Ciaran Burke The often-changing definitions of widening participation groups in UK higher education has the potential to lead to inequitable experiences for students who do not fit into traditional typologies. This book considers the experiences of students who care for children while studying (CCS), a group often discussed only broadly in existing research, to shine a light on the unique barriers and experiences they face. Problematising 'who' is recognised in widening participation and equalities policy, Samuel Dent presents an Institutional Ethnographic study, involving 16 CCS students at a research-intensive UK University and collected over two academic years, to gain further insight into their institutional experiences. Unearthing the complex reality that CCS students' experiences vary in proportion to a diverse range of individual circumstances, Dent identifies a consistent theme in which these students experience a pattern of institutionally 'othering', 'individualisation', and 'passing' behaviours. Dent ultimately concludes by tackling the important question of how these patterns of experiential imbalance might be challenged.