Recognising the risks: perceptions of higher education amongst young white British males from areas of educational disadvantages

ABSTRACT

Comparatively few young white males from poorer backgrounds progress to university. This paper considers evidence gathered from a study that explores the educational ambitions of these young men from five areas of educational disadvantage in North West England, at two stages in their learner journeys. The first stage relates to school year 10 (14–15 year olds), as pupils work towards their level 2 qualifications. The second focuses on year 12 (16–17 year olds), as post-16 options are embarked upon and attention is turned to longer-term plans. What emerges from this study are a number of shared concerns over higher education as a destination. In supporting claims made in various other studies that have considered learners from widening participation backgrounds more generally, it is argued that these can be expressed in terms of costs. For this group, the potential benefits of HE must be weighed against a range of consequences that, in scale and extent, are unlikely to be encountered by their more affluent peers, and that may not be so acutely felt by those from some other under-represented populations. The study concludes by arguing that practitioners should acknowledge these consequences when developing outreach interventions for this group.

KEYWORDS:

• Males
• disadvantage
• widening access
• costs

Acknowledgments

Thank you to all the young men who participated in the focus groups conducted for the study upon which this article is based. Thank you also to the teaching professionals and outreach practitioners for their time and expertise, and to the managers in each of the five participating partnerships for all their guidance, support and patience. Finally, a particular thank you to Ant Sutcliffe, Dr Hannah Merry and Chris Bayes, who were the originators and drivers behind the idea to conduct the original investigation.

Disclosure statement

This article is based on an unpublished report by the author, which was funded and supported by five NCOP (now Uni Connect) partnerships based in North West England.

Additional information

Funding

The research for this study was funded by the National Collaborative Outreach Programme, which is now known as Uni Connect.

Notes on contributors

Neil Raven

Neil Raven runs his own educational consultancy and is an active researcher in the field of widening participation. He is also a visiting lecturer and senior associate teacher in the School of Education, University of Bristol, and has published a range of articles on aspects of fair access, evaluation and professional practice.