Priced out: the renegotiation of aspirations and individualized HE ‘choices’ in England.

ABSTRACT

Official policy texts in England have long assumed that students make their Higher Education choices in an individualized, rational and context-free manner. Under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government (2010–2015), a greater emphasis was placed on accomplishing higher levels of widening participation in elite institutions. Those who do not progress to such institutions, or to HE at all, are presented as having ‘low aspirations’. Using data from an ESRC funded narrative inquiry of socioeconomically underrepresented Further Education students’ HE decision-making and choices, I demonstrate how they aspired highly while initially showing competitive and individualized choice strategies. However, financial constraints led to the renegotiation of their aspirations over time, leading them to compromise for ‘reasonable’ rather than ‘preferred’ HE options. Subsequently, this had negative impacts upon the participants’ subjectivities. The article provides support for arguments against current individualized conceptualizations of ‘aspiration’ presented by policy, and proposes approaches to move away from this.

KEYWORDS:

• Aspiration
• student choice
• Further Education (FE)
• Higher Education (HE)
• finance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Further Education Colleges (FECs) provide courses (typically vocational) to 16–19-year-olds and adult learners.

2. Participants were able to choose whether they wanted to speak to me as part of a focus group with their peers, or individually, during each phase.

3. In accordance with the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD).

4. FECs in Participation of Local Area (POLAR) Quintiles 1 and 2 were approached.

5. A public body operating in England that regulated fair access to HE. As of April 2018, this responsibility now belongs to the Office for Students.

6. An agency that collects, analyses and publishes statistical information on the UK HE sector.

7. A national widening participation initiative which aims to provide increased access to research-intensive institutions for students who are underrepresented in HE.

8. The college received Erasmus+ funding to support vocational education and training students on selected courses to gain experience abroad.

9. An online forum for students to share and discuss academic issues, study help, careers information and university choices (see http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/).

10. This report is informed by data from Currie et al.’s (2004) work reporting on health behaviors of children aged 11, 13 and 15.

11. The UK Government offers a grant for students in England who wish to study abroad, but this only contributes to travel expenses, as well as ‘essential’ expenses, medical insurers and visas. Moreover, this is limited to those who are studying abroad as part of their course, those on Erasmus study and work placements, or medical and dental students.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council under grant reference: ES/J500215/1.

Notes on contributors

Zoe Baker

Dr Zoe Baker is currently a Researcher and Academic Skills Advisor at Sheffield Hallam University. She completed her PhD in the School of Education at the University of Sheffield which explored the Higher Education decision-making and choices of Further Education students. Zoe’s research interests include widening participation, the sociology of education, educational inequalities, social justice and inclusive learning and teaching.