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Abstract
With reference to an ESRC/TLRP project conducted across two academic years with working‐class students in higher education (HE), this paper explores the relationship between geographies of home and those of university at two UK HE institutions. It addresses how social relations inflected by class influence the experience of students as they adapt to new socio‐cultural environments and negotiate the terms of their emergent identities. By indicating the ways in which HE experiences are classed, but also situated and connected across geographical locations, this paper examines the ties between forms of working‐class identity and the contexts through which they are reproduced. In different ways, the security of locality and of what and who is already known is seen here as critical in dealing with risky and often alien educational environments as a form of social capital.
Notes
1. Grant reference: ESRC RES‐139‐25‐0208.
2. The End of Award Report for this ESRC/TLRP project is available on the ESRC’s ‘Society today’ website: http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/index.aspx
3. Further education (FE) here refers to post‐compulsory, post‐16 education set within distinct college institutions.
4. Foundation degrees are delivered in partnership with employers and HE providers. A full‐time Foundation degree course will take two years to complete. After completion some students go on to study for an Honours Degree.
5. Post‐1992 University here refers to those HEIs in the UK that acquired university status as a result of the provisions of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. Most of these ‘new universities’ were previously technical colleges or polytechnics offering largely vocational qualifications.
6. Total number of questionnaire returns = 1209. Southern University = 292, Midland University = 597, Northern University = 277 and Eastern College = 33, Other = 10.
7. This phase of the fieldwork involved 89 participants across the four HEIs.
8. Three at Eastern College, eight at Northern University, seven at Midland University and nine at Southern University.
9. In total there are 27 case study students: 3 at Eastern College, 8 at Northern University, 7 at Midland University and 9 at Southern University. At Eastern College students studied Early Childhood Studies or Performing Arts and at the three universities: Law, Engineering, History, Chemistry, English or Economics.
10. ‘Mature student’ here refers to those students aged 21 or over at the commencement of their undergraduate degree.
11. All the names of students and place names/university names are pseudonyms.
12. In the academic year 2004–2005 at Midland University 862 undergraduates (8.7% of total undergraduates) are known to have previously attended Independent schools. At Northern University this figure was much lower at 139 known undergraduates (0.9% of total undergraduates). This data was obtained through the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).
13. The importance of fitting part‐time, and also even full‐time, employment into the HE experience is an important issue for many of students in this study. For most of the working‐class students at both universities this source of income was a necessity, although for some of the students at Midland University the intensive character of their courses meant that they were restricted to working in the holidays as opposed to term time. We have given further consideration to this elsewhere (see Crozier et al. Citation2008a and Reay et al. Citation2009).
14. ‘Almost two‐in‐five (37%) C2DEs [Social grades including skilled manual workers, semi and unskilled manual workers, state pensioners, casual or lowest grade workers and the unemployed] feel that the ability to live at home is an important factor when choosing a university compared to just 15% of ABs [social grades including high and intermediate managerial, administrative or professional] … A third of students from working class backgrounds say it is important to be “close by my family”. This compares to just 19% of ABs’ (MORI, Citation2004, 7).
