The socio-cultural and learning experiences of working class
students in Higher Education
(ESRC RES-139-25-0208)
INTERIM SUMMARY REPORT
Gill Crozier University of Sunderland
Diane Reay University of Cambridge
John Clayton University of Sunderland
Lori Colliander University of Cambridge
Jan Grinstead East Durham and Houghall
Community College
PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE AUTHORS
Corresponding author: gill.crozier@sunderland.ac.uk
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This project is part of the Teaching and Learning Research Programme and is funded
by the Economic and Social Research Council. The project began in January 2006 and
ends April 2008. This interim summary report is based on the first stage interviews in
the three universities (not the FE College) with a cross section of students from
different social classes, ethnicities and genders, although predominantly white British
and more women than men. The students were accessed by a variety of means
including via their questionnaire responses, tutor contacts and by posting a request on
the respective web message boards.
The aims of the study are:
Aims:
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To explore working class students’ experiences of higher education
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To explore the impact of these on their learner and cultural identities and the
implications for their progress and retention
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To compare and contrast the social and cultural experiences of working class
students in different types of universities/higher education institution
To explore the extent to which these experiences are gendered and where
possible, ‘raced’
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To discern the impact of the university experiences on the constructions and
re-constructions of the students’ identities and explore the processes of
compliance or resistance with which students engage in order to position
themselves as effective learners
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To contribute to the theoretical understanding of social class and learner
identities within the higher education context
Research Design
The research has taken place across three geographical areas and in four different
types of HE institution:
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A post 1992 university – Northern
A pre- 1992 university - Midlands
A high status university – Southern
A college of FE running Foundation degrees
Six different disciplinary areas in the universities (but where possible the same
ones in each institution– Law, History, English, Chemistry, Engineering,
Economics and Politics) and three in the FE college (Arboriculture, Performing
Arts, Early Childhood Studies)
Undergraduates 18 years and above including white and minority ethnic women
and men.
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Tutors and admissions officers
The research employed mixed methods but it is predominantly a qualitative study,
utilising:
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Questionnaires with a cross section of students
Group and one to one interviews with a cross section of students
Case studies – with working class students
E – dialogues
Observations of lectures and participant observations of local contexts
Qualitative interviews with tutors
Data Analysis
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Grounded theory complemented by existing conceptual frameworks including:
Bourdieu’s concepts of social, symbolic and cultural capital and institutional
habitus; Bernstein’s concepts of visible and invisible pedagogies and
realisation and recognition rules
Questionnaire Returns:
Northern: 277: 23%
Midlands: 597: 49%
Southern: 292: 24%
Eastern College: 33: 3%
Not Known: 10: .82.7%
Total: 1209
Number of Students Interviewed at the First Stage
Northern: 22
Midlands: 33
Southern: 22
Eastern College: 12
Total:89
Number of Case Study Students and Interviews :
Total Number of Case Study Students: 27
Northern: 8:34 interviews
Midlands: 7:23 interviews
Southern: 9:27 interviews
Eastern College: 3:10 interviews
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Total Interviews to date:94
Diverse Institutions
The four Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are very different institutions with
different mission statements, traditions, resources, expectations and so on. The
Further Education College offers a small number of Foundation Degrees in
partnership with Northern University.
Northern University has a strong focus on Widening Participation. Its role within the
region is also regarded as very important. Southern University emphasises ‘the
brightest people’ who ‘can get the most out of the Southern University experience,
and resources’ . Midlands University describes itself as a civic university with a
‘broad academic base’ and ‘culturally diverse’.
Entry requirements: Points scores vary depending on demand both within as well as
across the universities. However at Northern University some subjects allow entry
onto their degree courses without any formal qualifications subject to a satisfactory
interview. Southern University requires an entrance exam and interviews and is highly
competitive. The variability between point scores at Midlands depends on the
popularity of the course.
Different Rules and Regulations: Different traditions and missions give rise to
different expectations, rules and regulations. Student accommodation has emerged as
an important issue particularly in relation to students developing friends, social (and
in some ways academic) networks and developing identification with their university
and a sense of belonging. Southern University requires all first years to live on
campus and students often live on campus subsequently. Most Northern students
irrespective of social class live at home (70% in our questionnaire) and are mainly
local to the region. Midlands’ students in their first year tend to live in Halls. Halls for
the Midlands’ students and the College system for the Southern University students,
are an important focus for student social life, friendship-making fora and
opportunities to become acculturated – to find out what to do and what’s going on.
Northern students do not have this opportunity to the same degree if they live at
home. These students tend to socialise at home and with their former non-university
friends and family. There is not the same social milieu around societies as at the other
two universities. Students at Northern University were the least involved in their
university’s social life and those who lived at home only socialised during the day
with their peers. These students also identified less with their University than students
in the other two Universities.
Most Northern University students have paid employment. According to our
questionnaire responses 23% of Northern students work 16-20 hours.
Southern University students are not allowed to take paid employment in term time.
According to our questionnaire 30% of Midlands’ students said they worked part-time
to varying degrees, in term time..
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The three universities have different amounts of wealth, and resources. One
implication of this is the amounts of money the university can give in bursaries to
their students. Whilst all the universities have these schemes since the payment of
tuition fees, the College system at Southern University for example provides
additional privileges to students who have limited finances. These Colleges however,
also differ in wealth and status.
Diverse Students
There is a diverse student population to varying degrees within each of these
universities. The majority of working class students (in 2004-2005) (39.5% NS-SEC
4-7)_ and mature, first degree students (31%) are at Northern University, with fewer
at Midlands (26% and 13% respectively) and fewest of all at Southern (12.4% and
.5% respectively) . We have here a class polarisation as identified by the Sutton Trust
(2000) in relation to mass Higher Education. There are also differences between the
working class and middle class groupings; differences between those who are mature
and non mature students; those who have family commitments and those with
financial concerns. At Northern, the middle class students we interviewed tended to
be from lower middle class families with fewer from the professional classes.
All middle class students to varying degrees had more preparation for university than
all the working class students in our study. Most were given advice by parents or
family members with many having parents or relatives who had gone to university
themselves. Also most had had advice and grooming from their schools or sixth form
colleges. Some of this preparation was intensive. This contrasted with the working
class students at Northern and Midlands who often had had a negative school
experience. In some cases these students ended up at university because of the
‘second chance’ opportunity of Access courses or post 19 FE opportunities and/or
being encouraged by an FE or sixth form college teacher who identified their
potential. In other cases where they had left school at 16 boredom with their limited
employment made them reappraise the possibilities education may offer. For the
working class students at Southern, the University often represented a haven: a haven
from the challenges of their family or personal lives but more so a haven of learning;
a place where they could display their intellectual selves without being ridiculed as
nerdy and odd – the kind of experience they had had at their comprehensive school.
For some working class students, especially those at Northern, the road to university
was a hard slog through Access routes or returning part-time to sit A levels at
College: having to make up lost ground. This contrasts with the middle class students’
strong sense of entitlement – most if not all of these students just expected to go on to
university. These middle class students, irrespective of their A level successes, had a
very strong sense of their own ability; they have always tended to succeed and they
expect to continue to succeed. The middle class students’ had a strong sense of their
own self worth. At Midlands University this is often expressed by the students
through denigrating comments on the local post 1992 university. By contrast the
working class students at Northern University are self deprecating and hold a
perception that others think little of their own university.
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Different Learning Environments
There is some evidence of differences across subjects within institutions. This is
similar in all three of the universities. All of the subjects have their own particular
demands generating different learning practices as well as teaching approaches.
Chemistry, for example, is more prescriptive and students have a very intensive
teaching timetable with practical lab. based worked and collaborative group work;
historians are left more to their own devices and the range of work often depends on
the motivation of the students. But at Midlands and Southern students are expected to
attend tutorials for which they need to prepare intensively. The subject of Law
requires students to undertake placements but also to develop a well rounded
Curriculum Vitae and a range of experiences which could demonstrate to a future
employer their suitability for the role of lawyer.
It would appear that some students do not know what is expected, if it isn’t stated
overtly. They are unaware of hidden meanings or borrowing Basil Bernstein’s term
‘invisible pedagogy’. Moreover, some contexts (or fields in Bourdieu’s term) are
more conducive to the students accessing this knowledge through for example their
social networks which may be accessed through their social activities or through their
residences as in the case of Midlands and Southern students referred to above.
Students were expected to work hard at all the institutions. How challenging the work
was, is of course subjective and relative. From our questionnaire, students rated the
‘intellectual challenge’ as follows: at Southern 77% rated this at 5 (high) and 16% at
4 (no one rated it at 1, low); at Midlands 18% rated it at 5 and 38% at 4; at Northern
10% rated it at 5 and 29% at 4. At Southern students talk a great deal about the
demands of their work load; the importance of time management; the importance of
not losing face academically and the importance of succeeding. At Northern students
were not simply students nor just focused on their studies. These students variously
had family commitments, part-time work commitments, and financial worries. For
many of the Northern students their university studies were fitted in around their busy
lives. Their response to their studies was therefore often seemingly strategic. The
work was often hard and time consuming and failure was undesirable but temporaryfailure was accepted as part of the process, in that students did not seem phased when
they had to re-sit assignments or exams.
At Southern the students were given highly focused teaching and intensive support.
82% reported that they received up to 5 hours of one to one tutorials per week, whilst
the majority at the other institutions just didn’t answer this question, suggesting that
they didn’t receive one to one tutorials; this is borne out by the case study and group
interview responses. At Northern University one to one tutorials were not formally
part of the structure and organisation of their programme. Students reported that tutors
at Northern were very approachable and generally willing to give individual advice
and guidance if asked. This kind of support was therefore available but on an informal
and often ad hoc basis and dependent upon the student feeling confident enough to
ask for it.
At Midlands they tended to have small group tutorials. Students had to prepare hard
for these as they feared being ridiculed if they couldn’t contribute or answer questions
– although this was more the case in some subjects (such as Law) than others. In
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many cases they couldn’t remain passive learners. At Midlands, learning support is
seen to be available to the students if they are willing to go out of their way to speak
with tutors and lecturers in their own time. Very often tutors have office hours,
during which students may speak with them about any academic problems they have
experienced. Students are also given personal tutors with whom they can discuss
academic or personal issues, however it appears as though students often prefer to
speak with those lecturers relevant to the modules with which they have difficulties,
or those who they view as more approachable and helpful.
At Southern there seems an overwhelming commitment to ensure student success and
that no one drops out. So for working class students whilst they may not be
specifically targeted, once they are in- at the University, they, like everyone else, are
expected to achieve and will be helped quite specifically if they run into difficulties.
One of the working class case study students was given one to one tuition with a local
poet when he was having some difficulty with his writing style. At Southern students
are assigned an ‘academic family’ – a system of peer support in the first year which
seems to endure in subsequent years.
At Northern as in most post 1992 universities, there is great concern about retention,
as well as progression. There is concern about overburdening the student and
sensitivity about what the student might be prepared to do. So for example lectures
are not compulsory, although students are expected to attend seminars. And whilst
there is a desire that students read around their subject and put in extra work to
broaden their knowledge, there tends not to be a great expectation that that will
happen. There seems to be a notion of a student type often referred to as “ our
students” usually in connection with what can be expected or what they are capable of
doing. At this university there is increasing emphasis on e- learning and the use of
web ct with lecturers being expected to put all lecture notes, module guides and time
tables on the web. Students’ attendance at the university for lectures and other
activities is quite variable. This in turn impacts on group dynamics. Also less face to
face contact between students and tutors and students and students impacts on
students’ ability to acquire cultural capital through the more hidden and nuanced
means of one to one interactions..
Concluding Comments
 This research takes place within the context of a polarised system of mass
Higher Education
 In our study it would seem there is a matrix of differences and diverse
experiences within and between HEIs.
 The different universities and disciplinary areas comprise different ‘fields’ in
the Bourdieurian sense, providing or constraining different learning and future
- enhancing opportunities.
 The nature of the institution, its composition and the structural differences
interweave to create the conditions or constraints to enable students, or not, to
produce and reproduce their habitus and accrue cultural capital in order for
them to maximise and exploit their university experiences.
 We suggest this has consequences for students’ learning and may have
implications for their future careers/life chances.
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References
Bernstein, B. (1996) Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity. Theory, Research
Critique. London & PA.: Taylor and Francis.
Bourdieu, P. (1988) Homo Academicus. Cambridge: Polity Press
Bourdieu, P. (1986) Distinction. London: Routledge
Bourdieu, P. (1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Polity Press
Bourdieu, P. Passeron, J.C. (1979) The Inheritors, French Students and their
Relationship to Culture. Chicago and London: The Chicago Press
Sutton Trust (2000) Entry to Leading Universities. London: Sutton Trust
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