'Bettering Yourself'? Discourses of risk, cost and benefit in ethnically diverse, young working-class non-participants' constructions of higher education

“The associated risks of participating in higher education for these students are also considerably higher than for those positioned more strongly in the higher education and labour market field (Archer and Hutchings 2000).”

“All of this is exemplified in offering a student grant to low-income subjects (Archer and Hutchings, 2000).”

“…choice as self-exclusion is an aspect of closure both in the form of aversion to particular HE settings (in terms of class and ethnic ‘ t’) or more generally, as Archer & Hutchings’ (2000) research suggests, in seeing HE as too ‘risky’ both nancially and in terms of ‘personal identity bene ts’.”

“Extensive research in England has demonstrated the myriad ways in which class background shapes educational experience (e.g., Archer & Hutchings, 2000; Bufton, 2003; Egerton & Halsey, 1993; Hesketh, 1999).”

“The introduction of tuition fees for undergraduate students in the UK has caused a great deal of increasing financial hardship, and has further discouraged students from working-class backgrounds from applying to university (Archer & Hutchings, 2000; Hutchings & Archer, 2001).”

“(Jeremy, White, male, 22–25) The risks associated with higher education study are higher for working-class students (Archer and Hutchings 2000, Archer et al. 2002), and this is exacerbated by both the lower status of post–1992 universities in the hierarchy of HE institutions, and the lower status…”

“Some surveys signal that support from families and schools is crucial (Archer & Hutchings, 2000), others that non-traditional students have different experiences of the choice process (Connor et al., 2001), that cost is a barrier to university participation (Callender, 2003), and that students…”

“Bourdieu, field, habitus and capital accumulation Archer and Hutchings (2000) argued that widening participation discourse was only concerned with the ‘desire to participate’ and universities’ recruitment strategies, rather than addressing the ‘ability to participate’ once at university.”

“…research demonstrates, working-class young people and adults possess a commonsense knowledge of the hierarchy of institutions and they ‘know’ that this hierarchy offers them a ‘bum deal’ in that only ‘crap’ universities (Archer & Hutchings, 2000; Reay et al ., 2001; Archer, 2003) are open to them.”

“It also suggests that while families have a strong influence on young people’s conceptualisation of the sector, friends and peers play an important role in informing decisions about what constitutes a ‘feasible’ choice.”

“Some of the boys worried that ‘too much study is bad for you’ (Hakan) because – as found elsewhere (Archer and Hutchings 2000), it carries the risk of being ‘over qualified’ in an over-crowded job market.”

“Trisha's assumption here is that her identity and social centre of gravity have not been changed by going to university; and other projects suggest that such sentiments indicate an incompatibility between HE and a working-class identity (Archer and Hutchings, 2000).”

“Archer and Hutchings (2000, p. 572) have explored different concepts of social class and how working-class students talk about families’ involvement and their constructions of identities through higher education (Archer & Hutchings, 2000; Archer et al., 2001).”

“…of cost, and attitudes toward borrowing and debt are relative to one’s social status and familial experiences with formal financial systems (Archer & Hutchings, 2000; Burdman, 2005; Christie & Munro, 2003; McDonough, 2004; McDonough & Calderone, 2006; St. John, 2003; Trent, Lee, &…”

“[Ian, age 19, HE, LWP, FG] This illustrates the idea that HE is incompatible with working-class identity (Archer & Hutchings 2000), although for Ian and his family HE has become a ‘normal’ part of life.”

“The newly acquired ‘student identity’ may lead to, or confront, a range of both positive and negative (re)constructions of femininity (Archer & Hutchings, 2000).”

“…men in England from a range of different ethnic backgrounds perceive academic success as antithetical to their conception of successful manhood (Archer & Hutchings, 2000; Archer, Pratt, & Phillips, 2001), and working-class girls consider academic success as conflicting with their feminine…”

“Students may decide that higher education is a place where they do not really belong (Read, Archer, and Leathwood 2003 ) or that the problems they must overcome as a result of their low cultural capital make it too risky to participate (Archer and Hutchings 2000 ).”

“Generally, it may be understood that the competing requirements may accommodate each other to some extent ( Archer and Hutchings, 2000”

“Third, our work supports Archer and Hutchings’ (2000) argument that the inherent riskiness of going to university is a major factor influencing the educational decisions of young working-class people.”

“The literature on transition to higher education is replete with the term ‘risk’ (Archer & Hutchings, 2000; Brine & Waller, 2004; Johnston & Merrill, 2009; Reay, 2003; Wakeford, 1994).”

“They identi® ed the inner-city ex-polytechnics, which they could reasonably aspire to attend, as `crap universities’ offering lower standards and less well-regarded by employers (see Archer and Hutchings, 2000).”

“…has an estimated value roughly equivalent to 50 cents per dollar (Asker, 2003; Linsenmeier, Rosen, & Rouse, 2001).2 However, loans are a form of tuition subsidy that can carry negative effects owing to the psychological stress of future loan repayment (Archer & Hutchings, 2000; Nora et al., 2006).”

“Archer and Hutchings (2000) describe how these perceived benefits of having a degree can be ‘constructed as an almost mythical ticket to social mobility and a good life’ (p. 565).”

“This positioning as other causes tensions for the working-class students—tensions that raise powerful issues around authenticity, shame, and belonging (Archer, Hutchings, & Ross, 2003; Archer & Hutchings, 2001; Reay, 2002).”

“Given the evidence suggesting that financial concerns and fear of debt impact more strongly on working class,women and some minority ethnic groups (Archer and Hutchings, 2000; Callender, 2002; Forsyth and Furlong, 2000; UNITE/MORI, 2002; Van Dyke and Little, 2002), it seems likely that more…”

“Examples from then and more recently include: age of the 'mature students' (Wakeford, 1994; Baxter and Hatt, 1999); age and gender (Maynard and Pearsall, 1994; Betts, 1999); ethnicity (Archer and Hutchings, 2000; Gilchrist et al., 2003) and class (Tett, 2000; McFadden, 1995). Webb later contributed to Williams’s (1997…”

“Additionally, a number of the men talked about the middle-class ‘plan’ or ‘direction’ (Archer & Hutchings, 2000) as ‘the norm’, against which they positioned their own non-participation as ‘abnormal’.”

“These factors, such as social class, ethnicity and disability, may indeed be considered fairly strong determinants of educational choice‐making and success (Archer and Hutchings 2000 ; Bloomer and Hodkinson 2000 ; Reay et al.”

“Pupil choice is mediated by many complex factors, including students’ gender, class and ethnicity as well as the influence of peers, parents, family networks and domestic expectations (Archer and Hutchings 2000; Brooks 2003; Evans 2009).”

“In fact, as Archer and Hutchings (2000) suggest, widening participation initiatives, by targeting supposedly faulty motivations, may be based on stereotypes of social groups rather than an assessment of concrete social and economic factors (Archer et al. 2003).”

“We show how the geographies of home and university as spatial resources are critical to the ongoing re‐constitution of student identities and highlight the way in which working‐class students invest in the familiar as a form of social capital in order to alleviate the dangers associated with what has been recognised a…”

“…changes in consumer behaviour and increasing concern among potential students about the risks involved with shouldering the larger debts than previous cohorts of students faced (Dolton et al., 1997; Watson and Bowden, 1999; Parry, 1999; Hesketh, 1999; Ahier, 2000; Archer and Hutchings, 2000).”

“In agreement with Archer and Hutchings, we believe that the issue of reducing social inequalities with respect to participation in higher education goes beyond issues of performance, and relates to ‘consideration of persisting inequalities between the experiences of working‐class and middle‐class students’ ( 2000 , 57…”

“…of this and literature suggesting that ‘non-traditional’ students often find ‘elite’ and ‘traditional’ universities alienating, hostile or unwelcoming (Archer & Hutchings, 2000), we report a study of the narratives of 14 ‘non-traditional’ students and examine their recollections of how they…”

“Also informative in this respect are the beliefs of non-participants (Archer & Hutchings, 2000 ).”

“This is corroborated by Archer and Hutchings (2000), who found that young working-class adults from ethnically diverse communities in London held clearly defined identities according to speech and dress that separated them from the tastes of young people who would go to university.”

“This may be understood in relation to the discourse of ‘risk’; whereby non-traditional entrants express greater concern about making the unfamiliar transition to the unknown world of HE (Archer and Hutchings 2000).”

“Indeed, other studies have provided compelling evidence of the significance of implicit assumptions about, for example, the type of university that is appropriate for ‘a person like me’ (Archer and Hutchings, 2000; Reay et al. 2001b).”

“Young people with little in the way of family resources of knowledge and experience of HE to draw upon are more likely to construct the HE arena as something that is ‘not for the likes of me’ and thus position themselves outside HE (Archer and Hutchings, 2000).”

“[3] Data relating to non-participant men and women are published in Archer & Hutchings (2000) and Hutchings & Archer (2001).”

“While many non-traditional students saw higher education as ‘an almost mythical ticket to social mobility and a good life’ (Archer and Hutchings, 2000: 565), they also emphasised the job insecurity in a labour market perceived as overcrowded with graduates: All this money innit is really not worth…”

“We, therefore, suggest that participation in institutional ISE is not an equal choice for all and might entail greater costs and risks for young people from minoritised and/or working-class backgrounds (Archer and Hutchings 2000; Dawson 2019).”

“…a plethora of studies has shown how those with lower access to capital (economic, social and cultural) are disadvantaged in various ways that can be detrimental to their educational opportunities and outcomes from early ages (Archer & Hutchings, 2000; Reay et al. 2005; 2008; 2009; HEFCE, 2015).”

“the level of personal risk they would be subjected to (Archer and Hutchings 2000). For example, Blake was concerned about the risk of failing his exams at university. Webb (2007) argues that the level of risk someone is willing to take on in developing goals towards what is being hoped for is”

“Many positioned ‘themselves “outside” of higher education’: ‘potentially able to take advantage of the benefits it can offer, but not as owners of it’ (Archer and Hutchings 2000, 570).”

“An interpretation advanced by Archer and Hutchings (2000) for why some students reject higher education relates to the limitation on access imposed by the university itself.”

“In terms of behavior, those whose family members typically perform low-skilled work may see less value in extended education, since it delays access to wages (59), while high community rates of adult violence and morbidity may negate public health advice to preserve health by avoiding smoking or high alcohol consumpti…”

“In this respect, they also show conformity to dominant public and policy discourses (Archer and Hutchings, 2000).”

“Although the number of entrants to universities has considerably increased in the past two decades, participation of students from lower income families and working class families remains low (Archer & Hutchins, 2002).”

“…widely used in the literature, and which include for example also the financial background of students or the occupation of their parents (see e.g. Archer and Hutchings 2000; Reay 2018; Bathmaker, Ingram, and Waller 2013), we decided to use the concept First-in-Family students, since it refers to…”

“Archer and Hutchings’ (2000) study of 109 non-HE participants from working-class backgrounds highlighted the complexity of aspiring to higher education.”

“…robust reasons why specific groups of potential students do not participate in HE, although many have made contributions to answering the question (Archer and Hutchings 2000; Forsyth and Furlong 2003; Gorard, Adnett et al. 2006; McCarron and Inkelas 2006; Gorard 2008; Bowden and Doughney 2010;…”

“These studies stress the different kinds of risks faced by working-class students, and some point to the relative instrumental or utilitarian strategies adapted by working-class students in choosing a HE programme (Archer and Hutchings 2000 ; Christie et al.”

“Previous research has shown that a series of attributes influence the probability of nonparticipation in HE including levels of affluence (Blanden and Machin, 2004; Machin and Vignoles, 2004), ethnic background (Archer and Hutchings, 2000; Connor et al, 2004), school type attended (Gorrard, 2000), gender (Reay et al,…”

“Whilst students explicitly discuss autonomy in ‘choosing’ a vocational course, as Archer and Hutchings (2000) and Fuller (2009) found, how students identify themselves in terms of academic success or failure matters in relationship to the educational choices they then go on to make.”

“…young working-class people in urban areas hold negative images of university (Hutchings and Archer 2001) and that this social group does not always value higher education socially or economically, making it a ‘risky’ and ‘costly’ choice for those in large conurbations (Archer and Hutchings 2000).”

“Ample research already exists on the lack of access for working-class young people into HE and that participation is unequal across society based on ethnicity and class specifically (Archer and Hutchings 2010; Reay, Crozier, and Clayton 2009).”

“…“Compared to the Asian samples, the Whites seem less cautious when it comes to …” (Matei & Ball-Rokeach, 2001, p. 559); “One woman commented …” (Fullilove & Fullilove, 1999, p. 1119); and “Among ethnic minority respondents, particular emphasis was placed on …” (Archer & Hutchings, 2000, p. 561).”

“…have been excluded from accessing higher education, and despite over a decade of initiatives to raise aspirations and widen participation (Archer & Hutchings, 2000; Bowes et al., 2013; Lall, Morley, & Gillborn, 2003; Reay, David, & Ball, 2001; Thomas & Quinn, 2007), the number of…”

“Another set of studies (Archer and Hutchings 2000; Archer, Hutchings, and Ross 2003; Hutchings and Archer 2001) recorded the views of those engaged in choosing (or not) providers of higher education. These studies also adopt the argument that the exclusionary tactics of elite are limiting the access of non-traditional…”

“A substantial amount of qualitative work was carried out, examining the ‘barriers’ preventing students from these social groups from ‘succeeding’ in higher education (Archer & Hutchings, 2000; Bowl, 2000, 2001, 2003).”

“(Archer & Hutchings, 2010, p. 31) Archer’s theoretical inquiries of gender and aspiration (Archer & Hutchings, 2010; Archer & Yamashita, 2003), alongside class and ethnicity, pull from a robust intersectional lens that gives careful attention to youth cultural elements, and the crosspollination of…”

“Earlier studies looking at how young people from working-class communities see “going to university” (Connor & Dewson et al., 2001; Archer & Hutchings, 2000; Hutchings & Archer, 2001; Ball, Davies, David, & Reay, 2002; Greenhalgh, Seyan, & Boynton, 2004) have highlighted both the practical…”

“Among women from the intermediate and working class, not so many intend to enter higher education, for different reasons (Archer, 2000 ).”

“The culture of the elite is so dominant in schools that children from lower classes have difficulty adjusting and acquiring the cultural capital expected by the higher education systems (Archer & Hutchings, 2002).”

“Archer and Hutchings (2000) found respondents talking about higher education institutions as predominantly white places: ‘And like when you see it up there like actually the prospectus it’s like White people, White people’ (p. 563).”

“” This leads to a lack of ambition (Roberts, 1999 ), “a poverty of aspiration” (Archer & Hutchings, 2000 , p.”

“In the UK, much of the HE participation literature revolves around the under-representation of young adults from particular social and ethnic groups (Archer and Hutchings, 2000; Brooks, 2005; Reay et al., 2005).”

“Going to university is not a natural progression for these students, and many well-qualified working-class students decide not to move on to higher education, seeing it as too risky (Archer & Hutchings, 2000).”

“Twitter Jacquie Kelly @JacquieAKelly”