This project begins with a fact-finding/information collection phase, that consists of surveys of higher education institutions in Africa and Europe and student input and research on access and retention issues.

Reader on Access and Retention in Europe and Africa
Preliminary findings, African survey analysis

Institutional surveys: These surveys specifically targeted institutions across Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, generating a controlled sample of countries and types of institutions. They consisted of

a) questions regarding the universities' basic understanding/definition of access and equity and whether this is an institutional objective
b) questions regarding target groups of students in the access debate
c) policies and actions to promote and enhance access to higher education
d) questions of state/national policies that guide or determine institutional access policies and strategies
e) questions regarding strategies to enhance retention and success of students.

The purpose was to collect a base of information to examine some of the topical issues and practices regarding access to higher education in Europe and a sample of countries in Africa. Case studies and best practice will be extracted which will be show-cased at the workshop.


Student voice: issues of access and retention: The students' perspective on access, diversity and retention challenges in Europe and Africa is considered extremely valuable to the Access to Success project.

The European Student's Union, project partner, has collected information on:

a) How national or local student unions contribute to facilitating access, supporting retention and promoting diversity in higher education.
b) Student perceptions on institutional and national policies to widen participation for all student groups

This article uses data from existing sources (e.i. Bologna With Student Eyes), but also collect more targeted information from Student Unions on a smaller scale. A student focus group, organised in parallel to the Stockholm Student Convention in October 2009 was organised in order to test the statements made in the article and to add more qualitative information.

A similar focus group will be organised in Addis Ababa, 17 November 2009, to generate the opinion of African students from different nationalities on these issues.

All study/report outcomes was featured in a Reader for the first workshop. These can be found in the "preliminary findings" above.