Educative, fantastic, informative, stimulating, inspiring, generative, awesome – just a few of the words used to describe the one-day event Rurality and access to higher education: an international symposium held virtually in the School of Education on 31st March 2021. 

Global inequalities are increasingly manifested spatially and the ever widening disparities between urban and rural populations have been further increased by the massive changes in educational provision and need for digital infrastructure brought on through the COVID 19 pandemic, particularly for low income countries and those in the global South.

The symposium explored the experiences and challenges for students from rural backgrounds in accessing higher education across multiple contexts. It was inspired by a recent Special Issue of the journal Compare ‘Rurality and Access to Higher Education’ that foregrounds these issues (Trahar, Timmis, Lucas and Naidoo 2020).

Organised by Dr Sue Timmis this CHET and SRHE South West Network for Higher Education event brought together diverse international speakers to discuss rurality and access to higher education across a wide range of global South and global North contexts, demonstrating that the complexities are not confined to particular countries. 

We are pleased to present recordings for the event sessions below: 

Session 1 (Zoom video, automatic transcript and chat)

Chaired by Sue Timmis, University of Bristol, UK

Introduction and overview -  Lisa Lucas and Sue Timmis, University of Bristol, UK

“Leaving no one behind” – Critical reflections on inclusion in higher education 

Speaker: Phoebe Kirkup, UNESCO 

Session 2 (Zoom video, automatic transcript and chat)

Chaired by Sheila Trahar, University of Bristol, UK

Exploring rurality and ethnicity in globalised higher education: ideologies, intersections and narratives in doctoral research theses

Speaker: Catherine Montgomery, University of Durham, UK

Transitions from rural contexts to and through Higher Education in South Africa: negotiating misrecognition 

Speakers: Emmanuel Mgqwashu, North West University, SA, Thea de Wet, University of Johannesburg, SA 

Session 3 (Zoom video, automatic transcript and chat)

Chaired by Juan de Dios Oyarzún, P. Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile

Counselling to stay or to leave? - Comparing career counselling and transitions of young people in rural and urban areas in Sweden.

Speaker: Per-ÅkeRosvall, Umeå University, Sweden

‘You have to change, the curriculum stays the same’: rurality and curricular justice in South African Higher Education

Speakers: Kibbie Naidoo, University of Johannesburg, SA, Patricia Muhuro,  University of Fort Hare, SA

Session 4 (Zoom video, automatic transcript and chat)

Chaired by Lisa Lucas, University of Bristol, UK

Rural disadvantage in the context of centralised university admissions: a multiple case study of Georgia and Kazakhstan

Speakers: Maia Chankseliani, University of Oxford, Sophia Gorgodze, Ilia State University, Georgia, Kairat Kurakbayev, Columbia University, USA

Uncertain futures in forgotten places: a study on education policies and students' subjectivities in rural contexts in Chile

Speaker: Juan de Dios Oyarzún,  P. Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile 

Session 5 (Zoom video, automatic transcript and chat)

Chaired by Catherine Montgomery, University of Durham, UK

Panel discussion: How are the challenges of access to higher education from rural areas intersecting with broader global issues?

Speakers: Juan de Dios Oyarzun,  Per- Åke Rosvall, Thea de Wet, Sophia Gorgodze, Sheila Trahar, Kibbie Naidoo.

Closing remarks -  Sue Timmis, University of Bristol, UK 

Speaker Biographies

Phoebe Kirkup works in UNESCO’s Higher Education Section, primarily as a part of the secretariat for the Global Independent Expert Group on the Universities and the 2030 Agenda (EGU2030). She is also part of the coordination team for UNESCO’s III World Conference on Higher Education to be hosted in October 2021.

Catherine Montgomery is Professor in the School of Education and Deputy Executive Dean (Global) for the Faculty of Social Sciences and Health at the University of Durham. Research focuses on internationalisation of higher education with a particular interest in transnational higher education in China and East Asia. Recent work includes mobilities and immobilities and the internationalisation of curriculum and knowledge, flows of international students within the changing landscapes of global higher education.

Emmanuel Mfanafuthi Mgqwashu is Associate Professor and Director for Faculty Teaching and Support Directorate, Center for Teaching and Learning at North West University, South Africa.  He is a National Research Foundation (NRF) Rated researcher. Fields of expertise are Higher Education Studies, Language Education, Literacies Development and Literary Studies.

Thea de Wet is Professor of Anthropology and Senior Director of Academic Development and Support at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Her research is focused on health, education, and livelihoods. She co-led (with Sue Timmis) the recently completed SARiHE project on rurality and transitions to higher education in South Africa.

Per-Åke Rosvall, Department of Applied Educational Sciences, Umeå University Sweden. His latest work includes discussions on locality and the prevention of early school leaving in the Swedish highly decentralised education system and young people’s career choices in rural contexts in relation to social codes, migration and resources.

Kibbie Naidoo is Director of the Centre for Academic Staff Development at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. She is the Programme Convenor for the Teaching Advancement at University Fellowship Programme and the South African Universities Learning and Teaching Forum. Her research interests include rurality, curriculum development and social justice in higher education.  

Patricia Muhuro is Co-ordinator of Post Graduate Diploma in Higher Education and Training and Senior Consultant : Teaching and Learning. Research interests include academic development, staff and students in rural based institutions, ICT for education in resource constrained contexts.

Maia Chankseliani is Associate Professor of Comparative and International Education at the University of Oxford. Her research on tertiary education - higher education, university-based research, and VET/apprenticeships – focuses on societal, institutional, and policy forces that shape tertiary education and the potential of tertiary education and research for transforming societies.

Sophia Gorgodze is Associate Professor at Ilia University, Georgia. Currently she serves as Director of National Assessment and Examinations Center. She holds PhD in Education from Ilia University and MA degree in International Education Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research interests include decision-making in education and decentralization of education systems.

Kairat Kurakbayev is a PhD student and a doctoral fellow in the Department of International and Transcultural Studies at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA. Prior to doing his doctorate in Columbia University, Kairat served as Director of the Research Institute at Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education, Kazakhstan.

Juan de Dios Oyarzún, sociologist and PhD in Education Policy Studies (UCL-IOE), currently works at the School of Education, from the P. Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (Chile). He does research in Educational Policy and Sociology of Education from critical theoretical perspectives. His current research is related to the production of knowledge in the educational field, and its impact on students and teachers’ subjectivities.

Lisa Lucas is Associate Professor in Higher Education at the School of Education, University of Bristol, UK. She is Co-Director of the Centre for Higher Education Transformations (CHET). Her research involves an international perspective on changing systems and policy on higher education, social justice and equity in higher education.

Sue Timmis is Associate Professor in Education at the School of Education, University of Bristol, UK. She has researched and published widely on students’ lived experiences of higher education, particularly in relation to inequalities, decoloniality, digital cultures, pedagogies and social justice. She co-led (with Thea de Wet) the SARiHE project on rurality and transitions to higher education in South Africa from 2016 -2019.  

Sheila Trahar is Professor Emerita of International Higher Education, University of Bristol, UK. She has published widely on internationalisation and social justice in higher education, which have long been the focus of her intellectual scholarship. Her work is innovative in the field for its use of narrative inquiry and autoethnography.