Prof Noel Purdy OBE, Dr Emilia Symington & Dr Katie Tate, Stranmillis University College, Belfast. Northern Ireland’s post-19 landscape for learners with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is characterised by fragmented provision, outdated legislative foundations and persistent gaps between rights, policy intent and lived experience. This presentation brings together learning from three inter-related research projects completed over the past year by the Centre for Research in Educational Underachievement at Stranmillis University

Dr Raluca Roman, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics (HAPP), Queen’s University Belfast. Gypsy, Traveller, Roma, Showmen and Boater (GTRSB) communities remain amongst the most underrepresented groups in Higher Education (HE) across Great Britain and Northern Ireland, despite increasing policy efforts to widen participation and educational equality. This presentation draws on a programme of qualitative, participatory and community-engaged research examining the structural, cultural and institutional