Diversity and the higher education student: an analysis of policy from six European countries
Rachel Brooks, University of Surrey
Some scholars have argued that university campuses are ideal sites for inter-cultural encounter, whereby individuals from different backgrounds can come together and learn to adopt new perspectives on the world (Harris, 2012). Others, however, have pointed to the enduring evidence of separateness – in terms of the social differentiation apparent both between higher education institutions (of different statuses, for example) and within them (Andersson et al. 2012; Hopkins, 2011). Research has also highlighted the persistent inequalities in access to higher education in general, across many European nations, by social characteristics such as class, ethnicity and age (Finnegan et al., 2014). Engaging with these debates, this paper explores the extent to which social diversity is discussed by a wide range of higher education policymakers (including government officials, student and staff unions, and bodies representing higher education institutions and graduate employers). Drawing on an analysis of 92 policy texts and interviews with 25 ‘policy influencers’ from six different European countries (Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Poland and Spain), it examines the extent to which diversity is, firstly, recognised within normative constructions of the higher education student and, secondly, foregrounded within key higher education policies. It also explores the degree of variation – in relation to both of these – by nation-state and policy stakeholder, within an ostensibly homogenising ‘European Higher Education Area’.