Influence of policy discourse on student choice in Australian higher education

ABSTRACT

To address social inequality, many western governments have sought to pursue principles of ‘widening participation’ as a key policy response in higher education. Though originally intended to complement social justice policy agendas, alignment of education policies with broader neoliberal policy frameworks has led policymakers, such as those in Australia, to focus instead on the potential for widening participation to foster social mobility through higher education. Resultant policy discourse focusing on mobility outcomes signals to students that the doxic utility of higher education studies is to pursue an occupation which enables social mobility. This study seeks to explore whether there is evidence that such shifts in policy discourse result in closer alignment with doxic aspirations amongst students from low-socioeconomic status (SES) and non-metropolitan backgrounds than privileged students. This study assessed applications data across fields of education (FoE) for Australian university applicants in 2018, disaggregated across two demographic characteristics (SES and location), to determine the proportionality of applications within and between each demographic sub-classification, as well as between and within each FoE. Through analysing student applications to courses of study at university, it was determined that there are significant differences in the manner in which students from disadvantaged backgrounds actuate their aspirations.

KEYWORDS:

• Aspirations
• doxa
• equity
• education policy
• social mobility

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship (Department of Education and Training ).

Notes on contributors

Ian Cunninghame

Ian Cunninghame is a doctoral student undertaking a study on social justice and social mobility in higher education policy with the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education. His research interests revolve around the interactions between public policy and social justice, with a particular focus on educational inequality.