Campus closures and the devaluing of emplaced Higher Education: widening participation in neoliberal times

Abstract

Widening participation (WP) in Higher Education (HE) is often positioned as key to resolving social inequality, it underpins arguments that increasing levels of education lead to reduced levels of poverty. Located within the tension of duty and need, WP is positioned as both the responsibility of the University and a financial imperative. This paper considers the student experience of this tension, specifically the contradictions between discourses of equality and diversity and neoliberal conceptualisations of HE as market. Drawing upon qualitative research conducted during the closure of a WP satellite campus, the paper explores the consequences of the withdrawal of HE provision for 'local' students. Utilising focus group methodologies to develop an approach for 'thinking with' seven WP students, the paper explores the material, social and affective contexts within which students experience university in their 'hometown'. Foregrounding participants' critical understanding of their 'place' within a marketised HE sector, we consider the formation of student identity as a site of struggles for value. We argue, the closure of satellite campuses must be understood within the context of deepening social-spatial inequalities. Developing a critique of individualised constructions of 'social mobility', we outline an alternative imaginary of HE as an intergenerational community resource.

The Digital Culture Of The Academy And The Limits Of Technology

“…However, as noted by Lee et al, (2021) the pandemic presented 'limits to how much we can institutionalize and instruct student experiences at a distance' (p. 168). Such a sentiment also corresponds with previous studies which also highlight the importance of face-to-face teaching and learning and the nature of higher education ecosystems as social environments in which close interpersonal interactions are deemed as important (Leaney & Mwale, 2021). Indeed, digital technology in higher education is hardly a magic bullet to address the issue of the sector in light of the realities of the post-COVID world, while it can be leveraged to ensure that some progress is made, as is the case with online teaching moving from a marginal pedagogical practice to a widespread social phenomenon.…”

Modalities, Disciplinarity and Multiliteracies: the digital culture of higher education and the false promise of technological determinism

“…Such a sentiment also corresponds with previous studies which also highlight the importance of face-to-face teaching and learning and the nature of higher education ecosystems as social environments in which close interpersonal interactions are deemed as important [89]. Indeed, digital technology in higher education is hardly a magic bullet to address the issue of the sector in light of the realities of the post-COVID world, while it can be leveraged to ensure that some progress is made, as is the case with online teaching moving from a marginal pedagogical practice to a widespread social phenomenon.…”