ABSTRACT
Within the context of the learning society and globalisation, citizens are expected to engage in learning throughout the course of their lives (Scottish Executive 2003; Field 2006), and negotiating transitions into and out of the education system is clearly of vital importance. Traditional higher education students will have experienced, according to Ecclestone et al. (2006), at least ve transitions in their initial learning career, from rst entry to school to leaving higher education. Non-traditional students, including disabled students, may experience more transitions or nd the transitions harder to cope with, since they are likely to have additional barriers to contend with, including the management of complex identity issues. Over recent years, UK universities have had to think about supporting students, including facilitating successful transitions, in a much more serious way. Two decades ago, they catered for a relatively small elite group who tended to come from reasonably homogeneous (and generally socially advantaged) backgrounds. Dropout rates tended to be low since higher education students were generally not going against the grain of social expectations in completing their degree. Disabled students rarely participated in higher education because systems of additional support were not in place. Since the early 1990s, policies to widen access have achieved some degree of success and as a result most universities are now catering for a more diverse student population. Higher education institutions are also being managed much more closely (e.g. Riddell et al. 2007) with performance being judged against a range of benchmarks including course completion rates, employment outcomes and inclusion of non-traditional participants.
