Section 4 Access, participation and diversity questions in relation to different forms of post-compulsory further and higher education: Seamlessness or separation: negotiating further and higher education boundaries in dual sector institutions

The growth of ‘dual sector’ institutions, which offer what in England would be defined as ‘further’ (post-school, but not necessarily higher level) as well as ‘higher’ education, is one aspect of increasingly differentiated systems of higher education in a number of countries. Gareth Parry’s chapter in this volume (see Chapter 2) sets the scene for how researchers in a number of countries have investigated the emergence of dual-sector institutions and their role in creating a seamless system of lifelong education which overcomes the boundaries between different sectors in post-secondary education (Doughney 2000; Gallacher 2005; Garrod and Macfarlane 2007; Keating 2006). A seamless system, it is argued, might promote social justice, by improving progression into higher education by those traditionally under-represented in HE (Garrod and Macfarlane 2007).