Choices of Degree or Degrees of Choice? Class, `Race' and the Higher Education Choice Process

Abstract

This paper draws on data from an on-going ESRC project on choice of higher education. It focuses primarily on the experiences of non-traditional applicants to higher education. Although these students are not typical of the entire university entry cohort, their narratives raise important issues in relation to race, class and higher education choice processes. These `success stories' reveal important causes for concern as well as reasons for celebration. In particular, their experiences of the choice process are qualitatively different from those of their more privileged middle-class counterparts, highlighting key class and racial differences and inequalities.

Choice and Information in the Public Sector: A Higher Education Case Study

“…Pugsley (1998) found that workingclass parents could contribute little to their children's choice of university. Reay et al (2001) demonstrated that location was a factor that restricted the choices of university that working-class students could make due to limited finances, while Brooks (2008) indicated that a desire to be close to their working-class roots increased the tendency to choose local institutions.…”

“…Both Reay et al (2001) and McCulloch (2009) found that a concern as to whether they could 'fit in' was another factor limiting the choices of potential working-class students.…”

“…One of the extra options was 'parents thought I should go there', which reflected ideas expressed by David Willets (2010) that parents are part of the process of consumer choice. The other extra option was 'felt there were people like me there', which was based on some of the research evidence discussed previously (Reay et al, 2001;McCulloch, 2009). The frequency with which each answer was given (as a percentage of the 176 first cohort students who gave reasons and the eighty-four second cohort students) is shown in Table 2.…”

Discussing higher education choices: differences and difficulties

“…Both Paul and Sunita revealed that there were some aspects of their choices that they were reluctant to share with friends because of the possibility that they might fail to achieve their goals. Such concerns highlight the importance the young people The hierarchical nature of educational markets has been highlighted within the literature on secondary school choice (Gewirtz et al, 1995;Lauder and Hughes, 1999) as well as within studies of HE (Ainley, 1994;Ball et al, 2002;Brown and Scase, 1994;Hutchings and Archer, 2001;Reay et al, 2001b). This may suggest that by the time they embark upon the HE decision-making process young people already have an acute awareness of issues of difference and how this relates to educational choice and selection.…”

Year 7 Pupils' Views of the Future

“…This was true in the 1950s and remains the case today (as, e.g., in [1][2][3][4][5]). Currently, this research is being conducted and read in a UK policy context where governments are: (i) seeking to increase participation in higher education; (ii) know that many young people who appear (from GCSE results) eminently capable at age 16 fail to reach A-levels then university (see [6]), and (iii) the "wastage" is known to be related to young people's social class origins [7][8][9]. One view, on which a number of current policy initiatives are based, is that the wastage is due to a "poverty of aspiration" which is transmitted to young people through their families and neighbourhoods [10,11].…”