Myths about students in higher education: separating fact from folklore

ABSTRACT

Myths about students in higher education pervade both popular and academic literature. Such folklore thrives due to the belated development of systematic enquiry into higher education as a field of academic study, the neglect of an historical perspective, and an over-reliance on opinion-based scholarship and interview data drawn from University lecturers as a proxy for interpreting student attitudes. This paper analyses three popular myths about University students: expansion of the participation rate lowers academic standards (‘more means worse’), students in the past were more intrinsically motivated (‘loss of love for learning’), and learners apply market-based assumptions in engaging with higher education as a commodity (‘student-as-consumer’). These myths have an enduring verisimilitude but the evidence underpinning such claims cannot be empirically substantiated. It is argued that, taken collectively, these myths constitute a recurring moral panic about University students and that the veracity of such claims needs to be evaluated critically on this basis.

KEYWORDS:

• Myths
• students
• academic standards
• student-as-consumer
• moral panic
• higher education

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Mayble Pitt for her assistance in proofreading the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. An examination that qualifies a student to receive a bachelors’ degree.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bruce Macfarlane

Bruce Macfarlane is professor of higher education, Head of the School of Education at the University of Bristol, UK and a distinguished visiting professor at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Bruce’s publications have developed concepts related to academic freedom, the ethics of academic practice, and intellectual leadership. His monographs include Freedom to Learn (2016), Intellectual Leadership in Higher Education (2012), Researching with Integrity (2009), The Academic Citizen (2007) and Teaching with Integrity (2004).