Enabling and changing lives: Stakeholders who affect and are affected by the enabling initiative

Higher education is undergoing significant change; with efforts to widen access and participation, new stakeholders become engaged and perceptions and expectations within the sector shift. In recent years, an increasing number of ‘enabling’ programs have been established to prepare non-traditional students for tertiary study. These programs occupy a special place within the sector as they reach out to a relatively new cohort of students who have not previously engaged with higher education, thereby engaging ‘new’ stakeholders in the sector. This paper considers the diverse, complex and intersecting perspectives, expectations and agendas that various stakeholders bring to the enabling initiative by reviewing literature on stakeholders in higher education generally and drawing on research data collected from one enabling program at the University of Newcastle, Australia. By understanding stakeholder perspectives, a clearer picture of the tensions and conflicting expectations within this field emerges. Although enabling programs are sometimes seen as a cost by both funding bodies and providers, an emerging body of research shows that they are a valuable investment in developing solutions to economic and social problems.