‘Wales is my home’: higher education aspirations and student mobilities in Wales

Abstract

Drawing on qualitative research with a group of prospective university entrants in Wales, this paper examines the relationship between higher education aspirations and young people's emotional connections with home during the transition to university. The data demonstrate that decisions about where to study were shaped by conflicting ambitions; namely the desire to encounter both different and familiar places during a move away from the parental home. This paper contends that a number of students were able to reconcile these demands and thus formulate ‘suitable’ aspirations by migrating within Wales.

Keywords:

• aspirations
• higher education
• home
• mobility
• students
• Wales

Acknowledgements

The research for this paper was jointly funded by an ESRC and Welsh Assembly Government studentship. The author would like to thank the three anonymous referees for their comments on an earlier draft. Many thanks also to Clare Holdsworth and Johanna Waters for their support in the writing of this paper and to the students who took part in this research.

Notes

Non-traditional student refers to individuals from socio-economic groups which are under-represented in the HE system and who have little or no family experience of university study.

There is no equivalent non-means-tested, non-repayable tuition fee grant available to English students. Although it should be noted there are other several means-tested forms of assistance available.

Prospective university entrants are required to apply to UK HEIs via the central University and College Administration Service (UCAS). Applicants can apply to up to five different HEIs in the autumn term prior to academic year they wish to start university.

Participants are identified by their pseudonym, prospective university choice, location at time of applying to HE, whether student is the first generation (FG) or second generation (SG) or third generation (TG) of their family to attend HE, and whether student is from a professional (P) or non-professional (NP) household.

Harvey (1989, pp. 119–223) argues that spatial practices are shaped by the distance individuals must overcome to achieve a given goal. The term ‘friction’ denotes the greater time and effort required to travel to points which are further away from the individual. However, according to Harvey, spatial practices are context dependant taking ‘on their meanings under specific social relations of class, gender, community, ethnicity, or race’ (p. 223). In this sense, an individual's interpretation of the ‘friction of distance’ will vary according to their social position and the capital resources to which they have access. So, for instance the parents in Ball et al.'s (1997) study privileged different concerns in the search for a ‘suitable’ school for their child leading them to interpret and experience the ‘friction of distance’ in divergent ways.