Chapter 11 Higher education students as consumers?

In this chapter, we draw on an analysis of English policy documents and focus groups with students at three English higher education institutions, to explore some of the complexity in the ways in which the concept of student-as-consumer is discussed by both those formulating policy and the intended recipients. In relation to policies, this is evident in some of the apparent contradictions within government documents which, on one hand, emphasise strongly many aspects of a consumer discourse (foregrounding ideas around investment, choice and ensuring value of money) but, on the other hand, also discuss in some detail the vulnerability of students and their need of protection– which is clearly at odds with the notion of an ‘empowered consumer’. With respect to students, a similar degree of complexity can be seen in their differential awareness of the student-as-consumer discourse, and their varied responses to it

Students’ views about the purpose of higher education:a comparative analysis of six European countries

Across Europe, assumptions are often made within the academic literature and by some social commentators that students have come to understand the purpose of higher education (HE) in increasingly instrumental terms. This is often linked to processes of marketisation and neo-liberalisation across the Global North, in which the value of HE has come to be associated with economic reward and labour market participation and measured through a relatively narrow range of metrics. It is also associated with the establishment, in 2010, of the European Higher Education Area, which is argued to have brought about the refiguration of European universities around an Anglo-American model. Scholars have contended that students have become consumer-like in their behaviour and preoccupied by labour market outcomes rather than processes of learning and knowledge generation. Often, however, such claims are made on the basis of limited empirical evidence, or a focus on policies and structures rather than the perspectives of students themselves. In contrast, this paper draws on a series of 54 focus groups with 295 students conducted in six European countries (Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Poland and Spain). It shows how understandings of the purpose of HE are more nuanced than much of the extant literature suggests and vary, at least to some extent, by both nation-state and higher education institution. Alongside viewing the purpose of HE as preparing them for the labour market, students emphasised the importance of tertiary-level study for personal growth and enrichment, and societal development and progress. These findings have implications for policy and practice. In particular, the broader purposes of HE, as articulated by the students in this study, should be given greater recognition by policymakers, those teaching in HE, and the wider public instead of, as is often the case, positioning students as consumers, interested in only economic gain

Higher Education Timescapes: Temporal Understandings of Students and Learning

This article draws on data from six European countries (Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Poland and Spain) to explore the higher education timescapes inhabited by students. Despite arguments that degree-level study has become increasingly similar across Europe – because of global pressures and also specific initiatives such as the Bologna Process and the creation of a European Higher Education Area – it shows how such timescapes differed in important ways, largely by nation. These differences are then explained in terms of: the distinctive traditions of higher education still evident across the continent; the particular mechanisms through which degrees are funded; and the nature of recent national-level policy activity. The analysis thus speaks to debates about Europeanisation, as well as how we theorise the relationship between time and place. </jats:p

Paired peers: Moving on up? Project Report

Paired Peers Phase 2 (August 2014 - July 2017)followed up Paired Peers: Class and the Student Experience, also funded by Leverhulme Trust, which ran from September 2010 to August 2013. This project followed a cohort of students from Bristol’s two universities through three years of their degree. The students were drawn from eleven different disciplines (which had to be taught at both universities) and were matched by class: for example, we recruited four Law students from each university, two we identified as working-class and two as middle-class

Characterizing K2 Candidate Planetary Systems Orbiting Low-mass Stars. IV. Updated Properties for 86 Cool Dwarfs Observed during Campaigns 1–17

We present revised stellar properties for 172 K2 target stars that were identified as possible hosts of transiting planets during Campaigns 1–17. Using medium-resolution near-infrared spectra acquired with the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility/SpeX and Palomar/TripleSpec, we found that 86 of our targets were bona fide cool dwarfs, 74 were hotter dwarfs, and 12 were giants. Combining our spectroscopic metallicities with Gaia parallaxes and archival photometry, we derived photometric stellar parameters and compared them to our spectroscopic estimates. Although our spectroscopic and photometric radius and temperature estimates are consistent, our photometric mass estimates are systematically ΔM sstarf = 0.11 M ⊙ (34%) higher than our spectroscopic mass estimates for the least massive stars (M sstarf,phot < 0.4 M ⊙). Adopting the photometric parameters and comparing our results to parameters reported in the Ecliptic Plane Input Catalog, our revised stellar radii are ΔR sstarf = 0.15 R ⊙ (40%) larger, and our revised stellar effective temperatures are roughly ΔT eff = 65 K cooler. Correctly determining the properties of K2 target stars is essential for characterizing any associated planet candidates, estimating the planet search sensitivity, and calculating planet occurrence rates. Even though Gaia parallaxes have increased the power of photometric surveys, spectroscopic characterization remains essential for determining stellar metallicities and investigating correlations between stellar metallicity and planetary properties

Stepping outside of oneself:how a cleft-habitus can lead to greater reflexivity through occupying “the third space”

Bourdieu discusses the way in which the habitus, defined as ‘a system of dispositions, that is of permanent manners of being, seeing, acting and thinking, or a system of long-lasting (rather than permanent) schemes or schemata or structures of perception, conception and action’ (Bourdieu, 2002, p.27, emphasis in original), is developed from the field of origin but can be altered by new experiences and pedagogic action. He talks about his own conflicted experiences of a cleft habitus and suggests that this comes about when the habitus encounters a new and contradictory field, causing an internalization of divided structures (Bourdieu, 2002; 2000). Bourdieu considers this confrontation – a product of the process of social mobility – to be painful, which indeed it is for many who experience it. In Chapter eight Sam Friedman discusses this process, exploring the way in which a person’s habitus as structured by original social background retains prominence even when they experience life in a new social field. He importantly highlights how this can create painful negotiations. He argues that at times a working-class originary habitus acts as a barrier to being fully accepted within a middle-class occupation/social world when a person is socially mobile (Bourdieu, 1990). Friedman (2015), following Bourdieu, discusses the psychological pains such a shift in field and habitus may cause individuals, arguing it generates a sense of being held back from middle-class acceptance or being torn between two competing worlds. His arguments echo the conclusions of earlier work by Diane Reay (2004; 2002) as well as our own previous work Ingram (2011), which discusses the psycho-social impacts of a cleft habitus. In this chapter we want to take this theorizing forward by considering the powerful way in which this position can sometimes be a positive and empowering resource, without denying the potential pain it causes. Through drawing upon, and incorporating Homi Bhabha’s concept of the “third space” we aim to extend Bourdieu’s concept to consider the positive aspects of a marginal vantage point, a rearticulation of habitus (rather than a division), which contests the terms of two incommensurable fields to create a new space. In talking about the “third space”, Bhabha makes the argument that ‘the transformational value of change lies in the rearticulation, or translation, of the elements that are neither the One… nor the Other… but something else besides which contests the terms and territories of both’ (1994, 28). For us the “third space” is useful in that it helps us to think about ways of being neither working-class, nor middle-class but something else besides. It is quite an optimistic concept in a way because it works with the idea that this process is a creative one and is interesting to consider alongside Bourdieu’s more negative framing of the divided habitus (Bourdieu, 2002)

The chameleon habitus:exploring local students' negotiation of multiple fields

This study utilises an innovative creative method of plasticine modelling to explore the identities of local students (those who live in their family home) at the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England. Students created models representing their identity, which were used as a springboard for in-depth discussion. Through drawing upon Bourdieusian theory this article attempts to shed new sociological light on the subject of local student experiences. In much of the literature this is presented as problematic and it is often argued that local students either 'miss out' on the conventional university experience or that they are stuck between two worlds. This paper, however, presents a more complex picture of local students' experiences of inhabiting local and university spaces. The data is analysed through a Bourdieusian lens in which the university and local worlds are seen as fields of struggle, this allows for a nuanced understanding of how students conceptualise their positions and dispositions in relation to both fields. The findings indicate that living at home can be both problematic and of benefit to the working-class students in particular. Despite being immersed within two somewhat contradictory fields they can sometimes develop various strategies to enable them to overcome any internal conflict. In this article we draw uniquely upon Bhabha's concept of a third space to expand upon Bourdieusian theory, arguing that a 'cleft habitus' is not always negative and can be a resource for some in their attempts to negotiate new fields

Chapter 11 Higher education students as consumers?

In this chapter, we draw on an analysis of English policy documents and focus groups with students at three English higher education institutions, to explore some of the complexity in the ways in which the concept of student-as-consumer is discussed by both those formulating policy and the intended recipients. In relation to policies, this is evident in some of the apparent contradictions within government documents which, on one hand, emphasise strongly many aspects of a consumer discourse (foregrounding ideas around investment, choice and ensuring value of money) but, on the other hand, also discuss in some detail the vulnerability of students and their need of protection– which is clearly at odds with the notion of an ‘empowered consumer’. With respect to students, a similar degree of complexity can be seen in their differential awareness of the student-as-consumer discourse, and their varied responses to it