The Rise of Student Choice, and the Decline of Academic Autonomy

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-44
Author(s):  
Jennie Bristow ◽  
Sarah Cant ◽  
Anwesa Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Student Choice ◽  
Tuition Fees ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Cultural Script ◽  
Gradual Disappearance ◽  
Student Relationship ◽  
The University

This chapter critically evaluates the balance between compulsion and choice in contemporary narratives around the University, as scripted by policy documents and critiqued in the literature. Specifically, it analyses the cultural script of the ‘student- as- consumer’, and its impact on the academic– student relationship. For young people making the decision about whether to go to University, where to go, and what to study, the process is replete with choices – reflecting the landscape laid out in the 2010 Browne Report, which presented the increase in tuition fees as enabling students to benefit from an enhanced range of choices offered by a competitive marketplace. Yet, the study reveals that this choice is limited to decisions about where to go to university rather than deeper considerations about whether to proceed to Higher Education. This reflects tensions within the logics of massification, marketisation and politicisation. The analysis reveals an iterative reconfiguration of the purpose of Higher Education, through the augmentation of the ‘student- as- consumer’ and the gradual disappearance of the academic as central to the work of the University. As such, the chapter argues that deprofessionalisation and waning autonomy are not unintended consequences of policy developments, but critical prerequisites for the situation of Higher Education as the expected next step for increasing proportions of school leavers.

5. Students: getting in, getting on, getting out

2017 ◽  
pp. 78-96
Author(s):  
David Palfreyman ◽  
Paul Temple
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
College Student ◽  
Main Part ◽  
Diverse Group ◽  
Tuition Fees ◽  
Mass System ◽  
Universities And Colleges ◽  
Student Relationship ◽  
The University ◽  
Admissions Process

Universities and colleges are, overwhelmingly, about students and in most countries, they are a pretty diverse group, with varying aspirations. ‘Students: getting in, getting on, getting out’ considers the student journey from the admissions process, through induction, to the main part of the student journey involving day-to-day work on the academic programme, assessment, and then moving on to further study or to a graduate job. It asks whether students are partners or customers in the university/college–student relationship and explains how the picture has changed in recent years with the expansion of higher education, moving from an elite system to a mass system, and the introduction of student tuition fees.

scholarly journals Risk, Choice and Social Disadvantage: Young People's Decision-Making in a Marketised Higher Education System

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 110-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheryl Clark ◽  
Anna Mountford-Zimdars ◽  
Becky Francis
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Disadvantage ◽  
Widening Participation ◽  
Tuition Fees ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
High Achieving Students ◽  
Risk Choice ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Relationship

Rising tuition fees in England have been accompanied by a policy mandate for universities to widen participation by attracting students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. This article focuses on one such group of high achieving students and their responses to rising tuition fees within the context of their participation in an outreach scheme at a research-intensive university in the UK. Our findings suggest that rather than being deterred from attending university as a result of fee increases, these young people demonstrated a detailed and fairly sophisticated understanding of higher education provision as a stratified and marketised system and justified fees within a discourse of ‘private good.’ Our analysis situates their ‘risk’ responses within the discursive tensions of the fees/widening participation mandate. We suggest that this tension highlights an intensified commodification of the relationship between higher education institutions and potential students from disadvantaged backgrounds in which widening participation agendas have shifted towards recruitment exercises. We argue that an ongoing effect of this shift has resulted in increased instrumentalism and a narrowing of choices for young people faced with the task of seeking out ‘value for money’ in their degrees whilst concurrently engaging in a number of personalised strategies aimed at compensating for social disadvantage in a system beset by structural inequalities.

scholarly journals "Mine is an Atypical Case": An Analysis of Life Stories about the Experience of Higher Education Drop-Out

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 144
Author(s):  
Andrés Santos Sharpe
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Doctoral Dissertation ◽  
Drop Out ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Computer Engineering ◽  
Atypical Case ◽  
The University

This paper is derived from a field study in the framework of my doctoral dissertation, in which we analyze life stories (Bertaux, 2005) of young people who have discontinued their studies at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) in four courses with a high rate of dropout between the years 2005-2015: Computer Engineering, Anthropological Sciences, Chemical Sciences and Communication Sciences. With that goal in mind, seventy-five interviews were conducted with fifty-nine people: sixteen key informants and forty-three young people who discontinued their university studies between 2005 and 2015.In this paper we present one aspect of the analysis: the reconstruction of the symbolic framework of the discontinuation experience from the perspective of its protagonist, and how this outlines specific types of discontinuation. 

scholarly journals From the Periphery to the Center: Young People's Agonistic Pathways Towards Higher Education

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 192-206
Author(s):  
Felipe Salvador Grisolia ◽  
Lucia Rabello De Castro
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
Racial Segregation ◽  
Family Influence ◽  
Career Expectations ◽  
Upward Social Mobility ◽  
The University ◽  
The City ◽  
Academic Demands

The present research analyzes the mobilities of young people from the periphery of Rio de Janeiro towards a renowned university situated in a central region of the city. Focusing on a case study with four students, we carried out an in-depth investigation of the dynamics of their professional trajectories. Their personal identifications and values, their future career expectations and the pressures and the demands of attending such a university were investigated. Three focus groups meetings were organized with these students. The results show that the displacement from home to the university, social and racial segregation, and arduous academic demands are factors that pose enormous difficulties to these students and require intense psychological work on their part to persist in their educational investment. Intense conflicts with regards to living up to their ideals characterize an agonistic pathway in their educational endeavor. On the other hand, the prestige of the university, family influence and the belief in upward social mobility were found to support these young people’s decision not to give up. This contradictory dynamic, riddled with uncertainties, mobilizes these young people to find a way to permanently renovate their personal stakes in higher education.

scholarly journals Zintegrowany system wsparcia studentów we współczesnej edukacji – dobre praktyki

1970 ◽  
pp. 185-195
Author(s):  
Magdalena Kot-Radojewska
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Young People ◽  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Student Support ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Good Practices ◽  
Educational Role ◽  
The University

The paper argues about the role of higher education not only in terms of knowledge transfer andacquisition of vocational skills among young people, that is, the creation of qualified human capital  for the needs of the economy, but also in terms of implementation of the educational role of the university, one currently underrated. It is aimed at the education of creative, open-minded, responsible graduates, capable of understanding a dynamically changing reality, able to adapt to changes flexibly, and accept responsibility for their own development. The article presents an example of good practices in the field of comprehensive student support in higher education as developed by the University of Dąbrowa Górnicza. This approach, in addition to improving the professional potential of students, is also focused on forming their values, goals, attitudes and beliefs which will significantly affect their behavior and the way they use the acquired knowledge in the future.

Introduction: The Emergence of a ‘Graduate Generation’

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Jennie Bristow ◽  
Sarah Cant ◽  
Anwesa Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Historical Experience ◽  
Unique Approach ◽  
Student Relationship ◽  
University Experience ◽  
The University

This chapter outlines the unique approach taken by this study of the changing academic-student relationship in the context of both massification and the marketisation of British Higher Education. The book explores how the meaning of the ‘University experience’ is produced and interpreted by prospective and current undergraduates, by those working in Higher Education, and by wider networks of family and friends. It considers how the purpose of the University, and the role of students and academics, has been framed by politicians, over successive waves of policy making, and the disjuncture between these narratives and the ways in which those working and studying in Universities articulate what they do and why. By taking a generational perspective, the book considers how discussions about the University today are contextualised by historical experience.

scholarly journals Negotiating identity and integrity on social network sites for educators

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brady Robards
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Young People ◽  
Strategic Management ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
Teacher Student Relationship ◽  
Student Relationship ◽  
The University

Discussion around the use of social network sites, especially amongst young people, is pervaded by sentiments heralding the decline of privacy. In this context, it is important for scholarship in this area to attend to the array of ways in which individuals are managing their information and identity-projects in these spaces in highly strategic ways, such as audience segregation. Drawing in part on empirical data collected through an ethnography of young Australian users of MySpace and Facebook, this article seeks to draw out the tension between authenticity and integrity that operates in these spaces. In doing so, I suggest that educators must be especially cognisant of the complexity occurring in the strategic management of these spaces, given the ongoing push for universities and agents within the university to engage with these spaces, along with the tension such engagement can bring to the teacher-student relationship.

scholarly journals Innovative potential of the youth creative development at the university stage of professional formation

2020 ◽  
Vol 100 (4) ◽  
pp. 24-32
Author(s):  
Z Kulsharipova ◽  
◽  
G Mardenova ◽  
R Astanov ◽  
A Zhantlessova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Professional Development ◽  
Young People ◽  
Psychological Adaptation ◽  
Creative Development ◽  
Innovative Teaching ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Innovative Learning ◽  
The University

One of the main directions of modern higher education is the preparation and development of a future specialist as a highly educated, integrated person with a high level of competence, able to build and fulfill creatively his human and social goals regardless of growing tasks. «In accordance with the requirements of society, the state and the labor market, the higher education system is necessary to ensure the education of young people capable to create professional development in the context of automation and modern advanced technologies. An analysis of the scientific and methodological literature shows that young people at the stage of professional development at the university stage are not independent enough and are not informed about the choice of profession insuffi-ciently. Creative development of students in the process of professional development will solve the problem of reproduction and development of human resources in the country effectively. The article explains the concept of «psychological adaptation» including «professional skills» and also discusses some innovative teaching methods at universities. The main approaches to the introduction of innovations in modern higher education are analyzed. It also identifies the differences between traditional and innovative learning and shows the choice of innovative didactic goals, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of using certain methods.

scholarly journals The Complexity of Policy Mirroring: The Connection between International and Slovenian Higher Education Policy Discourse

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 9-28
Author(s):  
Janja Komljenovič
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Higher Education Policy ◽  
International Policy ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The University

The contemporary economic imaginary of the ‘knowledge-based economy’ is changing the perception of higher education in Europe. The goals of higher education are changing and reform of institutions is predicted. The present article examines these reforms and conceptualisations of higher education by presenting the results of discourse analysis of 47  international policy documents at the European level and two comprehensive national strategies of the Republic of Slovenia for higher education, research and innovation. Based on the analysis of the European documents, the article suggests that two main discourses are constructed: a) ‘the research-based society and economy’, and b) ‘reforming the university’. These present the emergence of a new idea of higher education at the international and national levels. The article investigates the extent to which these discourses are present in Slovenian higher education policy. The findings show that Slovenian discourse hesitates to embrace them fully. In particular, the idea of the managerial university is marginal in Slovenian discourse.

Globalization and Higher Education in Vietnam

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-136
Author(s):  
Thi Kim Quy Nguyen ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Invisible Hand ◽  
University Reform ◽  
Tuition Fees ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
University Leaders ◽  
The University ◽  
Different Parts

With the triumph of the current neo-liberal discourse, many university leaders worldwide have embraced an entrepreneurial model as the answer for change, turning the university from a public good into a commodity. Vietnam, a developing country in Southeast Asia, has become an active participant in this trend. This essay explores how neo-liberal discourse has shaped higher education in both developed and developing countries, with a focus on Vietnam. The expansion in Vietnam of private universities, the introduction of tuition fees, and the corporatization of higher education are all developments associated with trends toward marketization. Given the pervasiveness of globalization and the neo-liberal agenda, serious consequences will follow if the traditional role of the university is sacrificed to the invisible hand of the market. This is confirmed by ongoing trends and outcomes of university reform agendas in different parts of the world, including Vietnam. There is a need to recover the idea of the university as a public good, focusing on academic freedom, autonomy, and human development

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document