‘University opened up so many doors for me’: the personal and professional development of graduates from non-traditional backgrounds

There is a substantial body of quantitative evidence about the benefits of higher education. However there is little qualitative evidence about the extent to which these benefits accrue to graduates from non-traditional backgrounds. This paper contributes to this gap in knowledge by exploring the experiences of a group of 15 graduates 10 years after they had started at university. The cohort was unusual because they had all completed a...