(Un)Limited choice: analysing the strategic choices of first-in-generation students in neoliberal higher education

Abstract

In highly marketised higher education systems, massification has afforded greater access, particularly for first-in-generation students. Generally, this expansion has been fuelled by neoliberal ideologies that valorise the notion of choice and promise of social mobility. In this study, using interviews with 25 first-generation students, the issue of choice is critically examined in one of the earliest arenas of neoliberal experimentation: the Chilean higher education system. The study found that these first-in-generation students encountered complex and multi-levelled challenges in making higher education choices. Such choices were firmly anchored in differing levels of aspiration, and were strongly mediated by both family and school social capital. As a result, we propose an addition to traditional conceptions of choice: students (and their families) who act as strategic choosers. This outcome challenges the notion that first-in-generation students encounter unitary trajectories or equitable choices in encountering higher education.

Keywords:

• First-in-generation students
• neoliberal higher education
• qualitative study
• strategic choosers
• Chile

Acknowledgements

Funding from Fondecyt and Millennium Science Initiative of the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism is highly appreciated.

Disclosure statement

No financial or non-financial competing interests are reported.

Notes

1 In Chilean higher education, a private selective institution is a traditional benevolent university that is not for profit and a public selective institution is a long-established public university. Both types of institutions have a research focus and carry considerable reputational capital, therefore tending to have higher entrance scores. This is in contrast to new and emerging private institutions, which tend to not have a significant research focus and base admission on either comparatively lower scores or do not insist on entrance scores. For this study, we have identified several types of universities according to their ownership (i.e. public or private), how selective they are (i.e. in relation to the scores obtained in the national entrance test) and their orientation (i.e. research or teaching).

2 This study was a component of a research project that investigated the experiences of students in the Chilean higher education system. The research project was granted ethical approval by the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Protocol ID: 190308009).

Additional information

Funding

Funding from Fondecyt [1210392], [1200633]; Millennium Science Initiative of the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism [grant Nucleus Student Experience in Higher Education in Chile: Expectations and Realities].