In the U.K., ‘student engagement’, and the related ‘student experience’,
are increasingly measured, interpreted and then marketed to
students as a basis on which to choose the ‘best’ place for their
higher education. This article summarises and reflects on presentations
from five panel members at a conference on their experience of
university life after that choice had been made. The panel included
non-traditional students who embodied some of the characteristics
(such as age, social class and ethnicity) that have become
performance indicators in relation to widening participation and
engagement in higher education. This article captures how students
themselves understand a concept that occupies such a prominent, if
contested, position in contemporary higher education. This analysis
invites one to take a closer look at the identity work necessary for
students to thrive (and for some just to survive) at university against
a backdrop that tends to homogenise both ‘experience’ and ‘student’.
Individualization in the widening participation debate
