Journal articles

Baker, Z., N. Harrison, J. Stevenson and P. Wakeling (2022) Patterns of postgraduate transitions amongst care-experienced graduates in the United Kingdom. Cambridge Journal of Education 52(3): 349-368.

Harrison, N., Z. Baker and J. Stevenson (2022) Employment and further study outcomes for care-experienced graduates in the UK. Higher Education 83: 357-378.

Carter, S., K. Smith and N. Harrison (2021) Working in the borderlands: critical perspectives on doctoral education (Special Issue Editorial). Teaching in Higher Education 26(3): 283-292.

Bovill, H., N. Harrison, H. Smith, V. Bennett and L. McKenzie (2021) Mature female learners activating agency after completion of an education foundation degree: professional progression and the teacher shortage crisis. Research Papers in Education 36(2): 196-215.

Harrison, N. (2020) Patterns of participation in higher education for care-experienced students in England: why has there not been more progress? Studies in Higher Education 45(9): 1986-2000.

Harrison, N. (2019) Students-as-insurers: rethinking ‘risk’ for disadvantaged young people considering higher education in England. Journal of Youth Studies 22(6): 752-771.

Harrison, N. and K. Luckett (2019) Experts, knowledge and criticality in the age of ‘alternative facts’: re-examining the contribution of higher education (Special Issue Editorial). Teaching in Higher Education 24(3): 259-271.

Harrison, N., S. Davies, R. Harris and R. Waller (2018) Access, participation and capabilities: theorising the contribution of university bursaries to students’ wellbeing, flourishing and success. Cambridge Journal of Education 48(6): 677-695.

Harrison, N. and R. Waller (2018) Challenging discourses of aspiration: the role of expectations and attainment in access to higher education. British Educational Research Journal 44(5): 914-938.

Harrison, N. (2018) Using the lens of ‘possible selves’ to explore access to higher education: a new conceptual model for practice, policy and research. Social Sciences 7(10), 209

Harrison, N. and C. McCaig (2017) Examining the epistemology of impact and success of educational interventions using a reflective case study of university bursaries. British Educational Research Journal 43(2): 290-309.

Harrison, N. and R. Waller (2017) Success and impact in widening participation: what works and how do we know? Higher Education Policy 30(2): 141-160.

Harrison, N. and R. Waller (2017) Evaluating outreach activities: overcoming challenges through a realist ‘small steps’ approach, Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education 21(2/3): 81-87.

Harrison, N. and S. Agnew (2016) Individual and social influences on students’ attitudes to debt: a cross-national path analysis using data from England and New Zealand. Higher Education Quarterly 70(4): 332-353.

D’Aguiar, S. and N. Harrison (2016) Returning from earning: UK graduates returning to postgraduate study, with particular respect to STEM subjects, gender and ethnicity. Journal of Education and Work 29(5): 584-613.

Harrison, N., D. James and K. Last (2015) Don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone? Skills-led qualifications, secondary school attainment and policy choices. Research Papers in Education 30(5): 585-508.

Harrison, N. and C. McCaig (2015) An ecological fallacy in higher education policy: the use, overuse and misuse of ‘low participation neighbourhoods’. Journal of Further and Higher Education 39(6): 793-817.

Harrison, N. (2015) Practice, problems and power in ‘internationalisation at home’: critical reflections on recent research evidence. Teaching in Higher Education 20(4): 412-430.

Harrison, N., S. Agnew and J. Serido (2015) Attitudes to debt among indebted undergraduates: a cross-national exploratory factor analysis. Journal of Economic Psychology 46: 62-73.

Harrison, N., R. Waller, F. Chudry and S. Hatt (2015) Towards a typology of debt attitudes among contemporary young UK undergraduates. Journal of Further and Higher Education 39(1): 85-107.

Waller, R., N. Harrison, S. Hatt and F. Chudry (2014) Undergraduates’ memories of school-based work experience and the role of social class in placement choices in the UK. Journal of Education and Work 27(3): 323-349.

Harrison, N. (2013) Modelling the demand for higher education by local authority area in England using academic, economic and social data. British Educational Research Journal 39(5): 793-816.

Harrison, N. (2012) The mismeasure of participation: how choosing the ‘wrong’ statistic helped seal the fate of Aimhigher. Higher Education Review 45(1): 30-61.

Harrison, N. and S. Hatt (2012) Expensive and failing? The role of student bursaries in widening participation and fair access in England. Studies in Higher Education 37(6): 695-712.

Harrison, N. (2012) Investigating the impact of personality and early life experiences on intercultural interaction in internationalised universities. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 36(2): 224-237.

Harrison, N. (2011) Have the changes introduced by the 2004 Higher Education Act made higher education admissions in England wider and fairer? Journal of Education Policy 26(3): 449-468.

Harrison, N. and F. Chudry (2011) Overactive, overwrought or overdrawn? The role of personality in undergraduate financial knowledge, decision-making and debt. Journal of Further and Higher Education 35(2): 149-182.

Harrison, N. and N. Peacock (2010) Cultural distance, mindfulness and passive xenophobia: using Integrated Threat Theory to explore home higher education students’ perspectives on ‘internationalisation at home’. British Educational Research Journal 36(6): 877-902.

Harrison, N. and S. Hatt (2010) Knowing the ‘unknowns’: investigating the students whose social class is not known at entry to higher education. Journal of Further and Higher Education 33(4): 347-357.

Harrison, N. and S. Hatt (2010) ‘Disadvantaged learners’: who are we targeting? Understanding the targeting of widening participation activity using geo-demographic data from Southwest England. Higher Education Quarterly 64(1): 65-88.

Peacock, N. and N. Harrison (2010) ‘It’s so much easier to go with what’s easy’: ‘mindfulness’ and the discourse between home and international students in the UK. Journal of Studies in International Education 13(4): 487-508.

Harrison, N. and S. Hatt (2009) ‘Targeting disadvantaged learners’: will we really narrow the social class gap in participation by targeting our most deprived communities first? Journal of Access Policy and Practice 6(2): 61-80.

Harrison, N., A. Baxter and S. Hatt (2007) From opportunity to OFFA: discretionary bursaries and their impact on student finance, academic success and institutional attachment. Journal of Access Policy and Practice 5(1): 3-21.

Harrison, N. (2006) The impact of negative experiences, dissatisfaction and attachment on first year undergraduate withdrawal. Journal of Further and Higher Education 30(4): 377-391.

Hatt, S., A. Baxter and N. Harrison (2003) The new widening participation students: moral imperative or academic risk? Journal of Access Policy and Practice 1(1): 16-31.

Research reports

Harrison N., J. Dixon, D. Sanders-Ellis, J. Ward and P. Asker (2023) Care leavers’ transition into the labour market in England. Oxford: Rees Centre.

Sebba J., A. Brown, T. Denton-Calabrese, N. Harrison, N. Luke, M. Neagu and A. Rees (2022) Phase One evaluation of the virtual school head’s extension of duties to children with a social worker and the post-16 Pupil Premium Plus pilot. London: Department for Education.

Stevenson, J., Z. Baker, N. Harrison, B. Bland, S. Jones-Devitt, A. Donnelly, N. Pickering and L. Austen (2020) Positive impact? What factors affect access, retention and graduate outcomes for university students with a background of care or family estrangement? Bristol: Unite Foundation.

O’Neill, L., N. Harrison, N. Fowler and G. Connelly (2019) ‘Being a student with care experience is very daunting’: findings from a survey of care experienced students in Scottish colleges and universities. Glasgow: CELCIS.

Harrison, N., K. Vigurs, J. Crockford, C. McCaig, R. Squire and L. Clark (2018) Understanding the evaluation of access and participation outreach interventions for under 16 year olds. Bristol: Office for Students.

Harrison, N. (2017) Moving on up: care leavers and care-experienced students’ pathways into and through higher education. Winchester: National Network for the Education of Care Leavers.

McCaig, C., N. Harrison, A. Mountford-Zimdars, D. Moore, U. Maylor, J. Stevenson, H. Ertl and H. Carasso (2016) Closing the gap: understanding the impact of institutional financial support on student success. Bristol: Office for Fair Access.

Harrison, N. and R. Waller (2015) The evaluation of widening participation activities in higher education: a survey of institutional leaders in England. Bristol: University of the West of England.

Waller, R., N. Harrison and K. Last (2015) Building a culture of participation: interviews with the former directors of the national Aimhigher programme. Bristol: University of the West of England.

Harrison, N. (2014) How local communities influence the demand for Higher Education. London: British Educational Research Association.

Harrison, N., D. James and K. Last (2012) The impact of the pursuit of ASDAN’s Certificate of Personal Effectiveness (CoPE) on GCSE attainment. Bristol: ASDAN.

Bloxham, J., K. Eade, N. Harrison and N. Peacock (2009) Discussing difference, discovering similarities: a toolkit of learning activities to improve cross-cultural exchange between students of different cultural backgrounds. London: UK Council for International Student Affairs.

Raphael Reed, L., C. Croudace, N. Harrison, A. Baxter and K. Last (2005) Young participation in higher education: a sociocultural study of educational engagement in Bristol South parliamentary constituency. Bristol: Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Edited books

N. Harrison and G. Atherton (eds.) (2021) Marginalised communities in higher education: disadvantage, mobility and indigeneity. Abingdon: Routledge.

Mountford-Zimdars, A. and N. Harrison (eds.) (2017) Access to higher education: theoretical perspectives and contemporary challenges. Abingdon: Routledge.

Book chapters

Harrison, N. (2022) How do we know what we think we know – and are we right? Five new questions about research, practice and policy on widening access to higher education, in S. Dent, A. Mountford-Zimdars and C. Burke (eds.) Theory of change: debates and applications to access and participation in higher education. Bingley: Emerald Publishing.

Harrison, N., L. O’Neill and G. Connelly (2021) The journeys of care-experienced students in England and Scotland, in N. Harrison and G. Atherton (eds.) Marginalised communities in higher education: disadvantage, mobility and indigeneity. Abingdon: Routledge.

Harrison, N. (2017) Patterns of participation in a period of change: social trends in English higher education from 2000 to 2016, in R. Waller, N. Ingram and M. Ward (eds.) Higher education and social inequalities: university admissions, experiences, and outcomes. Abingdon: Routledge.

Harrison, N. (2017) Student choices under uncertainty: bounded rationality and behavioural economics, in A. Mountford-Zimdars and N. Harrison (eds.) Access to higher education: theoretical perspectives and contemporary challenges. Abingdon: Routledge.

Harrison, N. (2016) Global activists, global workers or home aloners: understanding the challenges of internationalisation at home when creating global citizens, in S. Kirk, C. Newstead, R. Gann and C. Rounsaville (eds.) Internationalising the curriculum: internationalisation at home and engaging academic staff. Nottingham: Nottingham Trent University.

Harrison, N. (2013) Success, proof, fairness, causes and consequences: five unanswered questions for the future of widening participation in higher education in the UK. In M. Hill, A. Hudson, P. Jones, R. Renton, S. Saunders and J. Storan (eds.) Widening access to higher education in divided communities. London: Forum for Access and Continuing Education.

Harrison, N. and N. Peacock (2010) Interactions in the international classroom – the UK student perspective, in E. Jones (ed.) Internationalisation and the student voice. London: Routledge.

Blog articles

Harrison, N. (2020) Care leavers in higher education: new statistics but a mixed picture, Rees Centre blog, 1st September.

Harrison, N. (2020) Universities need to up their game in supporting care-experienced graduates, Rees Centre blog, 20th February.

Harrison, N. (2019) Higher education can be a transformative experience for care leavers, Wonkhe, 12th December.

Harrison, N. (2019) Are care leavers really more likely to go to prison than university?, ExChange, 14th August.

Harrison, N. (2019) School exclusions are on the up – but training teachers in trauma could help, The Conversation, 11th June.

Harrison, N. (2019) Care leavers in higher education: how many are there and why does it matter?, LSE British Politics and Policy blog, 11th January.

Harrison, N. and R. Waller (2019) A lack of aspiration is not the problem, Wonkhe, 11th January.

Harrison, N. and R. Waller (2018) Aspirations, expectations and rethinking outreach, British Educational Research Association blog, 18th December.

Harrison, N. (2018) The art of the possible: supporting progression to higher education, BRIDGE, 12th November.

Harrison, N. (2018) Joining up the dots – why data analysis is vital in understanding and supporting care experienced young people, CELCIS, 13th September.

Harrison, N. (2018) Encouraging care leavers into higher education, Wonkhe, 19th January.

Harrison, N. (2017) Why evaluate?, University of Sheffield Widening Participation Research and Evaluation Unit blog, 18th November.