‘There needs to be some freedom, but in boundaries’: Students’ perspectives on the role and purpose of higher education in Denmark, England and Ireland.
Jessie Abrahams (University of Surrey)
Many parts of Europe have experienced the expansion and development of an increasingly marketised and neoliberalised version of higher education (HE). Out of this context it is possible to question whether we have also witnessed a narrowing of the purpose of HE for students and society more broadly. In this paper, drawing upon data from 27 focus groups with students in Denmark, England and Ireland. I explore the borders and boundaries around what it means to be a student in contemporary HE. To what extent do these young people’s identities as ‘students’ extend beyond the realm of the individual and of HE itself? Do they understand themselves and their role as HE students (and future graduates) as part of an individualistic and instrumental journey or rather as part of a broader form of citizenship which is progressive for wider society? Findings suggest that the majority of students in all countries discussed the purpose of HE as directly linked to economic gains. However students in Denmark were markedly distinct in that they often connected the purpose of HE to the betterment of society. This was something which was largely absent in the focus groups in England and Ireland; when the broader benefits of HE were discussed, this usually remained connected to an individualistic project of self-improvement.