Graduates' responses to student loan debt in England: "sort of like an acceptance, but with anxiety attached"

In 2020–2021, 94% of undergraduates in England took out government-backed loans to fund their higher education. The growing and widespread use of student loans in England, mounting student debt, and governments’ increasing dependence on tuition fees underwritten by loans to finance public higher education raise important questions which this paper seeks to address. Specifically, the paper asks how do graduates respond to student loan debt and what does this tells us about the nature of the relationship between the graduate debtor and the state lender? We also question the usefulness of symbolic violence as a sociological lens to better understand graduates’ different patterns of responses and reactions to student loan debt and their relationship with the state lender. Our analysis draws on 98 in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with English graduates between 2020 and 2021. We conclude that a more comprehensive explanation requires an exploration of both symbolic violence and structural violence and a re-appraisal of the word ‘violence’ to better represent the wide range of graduates’ responses

An Alternative Interpretation of Statistical Mechanics

In this paper I propose an interpretation of classical statistical mechanics that centers on taking seriously the idea that probability measures represent complete states of statistical mechanical systems. I show how this leads naturally to the idea that the stochasticity of statistical mechanics is associated directly with the observables of the theory rather than with the microstates (as traditional accounts would have it). The usual assumption that microstates are representationally significant in the theory is therefore dispensable, a consequence which suggests interesting possibilities for developing non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and investigating inter-theoretic answers to the foundational questions of statistical mechanics

Graduate indebtedness: its perceived effects on behaviour and life choices – a literature review

Around the world, student loan debt is rising. Growing numbers of students rely on student loans to pay for their higher education and their levels of borrowing are increasing compared with previous decades. In countries like England it is anticipated that the majority of graduates will be repaying their loans for most of their working lives. For many, having student loan debt is no longer a short-term status and it is becoming the new normal. There is now value in exploring how student loan debt influences individuals’ choices, behaviour and life events once they have left higher education. Yet, the academic literature on the impact of student loan debt on decisions made after leaving higher education and later in life is scarce. The few studies available, mostly based in the US, tend to show that individuals with student loan debt make different career choices, delay buying a home, have worse mental health, and are less well-off financially throughout their lifetime as well as being less prepared for retirement. Student loan debt amongst women is also negatively related to family formation. The possible critical impact of student loan debt on the future of our societies and economies calls for further research to fill the gaps in this limited extant literature. This includes moving beyond its US-focus, its dependence on secondary datasets, and its narrow focus within a small number of disciplines. Future research should aim to improve and expand methodological research designs, in particular by using qualitative methods, analysing longitudinal datasets, improving sampling, and trying to show causality. Questions asked in these studies should encompass such issues as the evaluation of possible delays in decision-making, the difference between completers and non-completers, the importance of attitude to debt, and the impact of different student loan repayment plans

Higher education, mature students and employment goals: policies and practices in the UK

This article considers recent policies of Higher Education in the UK, which are aimed at widening participation and meeting the needs of employers. The focus is on the growing population of part-time students, and the implications of policies for this group. The article takes a critical perspective on government policies, using data from a major study of mature part-time students, conducted in two specialist institutions in the UK, a London University college and a distance learning university. Findings from this study throw doubt on the feasibility of determining a priori what kind of study pathway is most conducive for the individual in terms of employment gains and opportunities for upward social mobility. In conclusion, doubts are raised as to whether policies such as those of the present UK government are likely to achieve its aims. Such policies are not unique to the UK, and lessons from this country are relevant to most of the developed world

Have the changes introduced by the 2004 Higher Education Act made higher education admissions in England wider and fairer?

'Widening participation' and 'fair access' have been contested policy areas in English higher education since at least the early 1990s. They were key facets of the 2003 White Paper - The Future of Higher Education - and the subsequent 2004 Higher Education Act, with stated objectives that the reach of higher education should be wider and fairer. In particular, there has been considerable concern about admissions to 'top universities', which have remained socially as well as academically exclusive. The principal policy tools used by the Act were the introduction of variable tuition fees, expanded student grants, discretionary bursaries and the new Office for Fair Access (OFFA). This paper draws on publicly available statistics to assess whether the changes implemented by the 2004 Act have indeed made access to English higher education wider and fairer in relation to young people progressing from state schools and colleges and from lower socio-economic groups. It concludes that, while there is some evidence for modest improvements, these have been concentrated outside the 'top universities', which have seen slippage relative to the rest of the sector. The paper concludes with a discussion of the reasons why financial inducements appear to be a flawed and naive approach to influencing student demand. © 2011 Taylor & Francis

Simultaneous corona poling of multiple glass layers for enhanced effective second-order optical nonlinearities

Silica-based thin-film multilayers are investigated as a means to enhance the effective second-order nonlinearity induced in silica glass structures by corona poling. Structures consisting of phosphorus-doped and undoped silica glass layers exhibit second harmonic generation (SHG) that is higher by an order of magnitude compared to the SHG in bulk silica glass poled under the same conditions. When the poled structure consists of two multilayered stacks separated in space, the stacks exhibit comparable poling-induced nonlinearities. This result suggests that the poling voltage is divided between the two stacks such that simultaneous poling of multiple regions within the sample is realized

The inequality factor: skewness and kurtosis as a measure of set-class cohesion

Building on current set-theoretic research, including similarity measures and maximal evenness, as well as findings in diatonic set theory and our own work on salience, we examine the interval-class content of set classes based on internal consistency (related to cohesion and regularity) and inconsistency (skewness). By systematically comparing one member tone of a set to the others, we posit abstract hierarchies between members based on salience, rather than the presence of specific interval classes or tonal function. Quantifying these factors allows us to hypothesize (1) what gives certain set classes the potential to function in a tonal way; (2) a set-class-sensitive method to gauge the level of dissonance in a composition (without presuppositions about the quality of specific interval classes); and (3) how different set classes might be deployed compositionally in order to achieve a variety of results. © 2014 Taylor & Francis

X-Linked Immunodeficient Mice With No Functional Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase Are Protected From Sepsis-Induced Multiple Organ Failure

We previously reported the Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors ibrutinib and acalabrutinib improve outcomes in a mouse model of polymicrobial sepsis. Now we show that genetic deficiency of the BTK gene alone in Xid mice confers protection against cardiac, renal, and liver injury in polymicrobial sepsis and reduces hyperimmune stimulation (“cytokine storm”) induced by an overwhelming bacterial infection. Protection is due in part to enhanced bacterial phagocytosis in vivo, changes in lipid metabolism and decreased activation of NF-κB and the NLRP3 inflammasome. The inactivation of BTK leads to reduced innate immune cell recruitment and a phenotypic switch from M1 to M2 macrophages, aiding in the resolution of sepsis. We have also found that BTK expression in humans is increased in the blood of septic non-survivors, while lower expression is associated with survival from sepsis. Importantly no further reduction in organ damage, cytokine production, or changes in plasma metabolites is seen in Xid mice treated with the BTK inhibitor ibrutinib, demonstrating that the protective effects of BTK inhibitors in polymicrobial sepsis are mediated solely by inhibition of BTK and not by off-target effects of this class of drugs