Category: Publication

Europe as spatial imaginary?

In our latest article, just published in the Journal of Education Policy, we explore the ways in which the idea of Europe was alluded to by the ‘policy influencers’ we interviewed, in relation to their understandings of higher education students. We argue that the idea of Europe constitutes an important ‘spatial imaginary’ for higher education within the continent, and helps to frame the ways in which students are conceptualised. However, this is not played out in the same way for all respondents. For some, we suggest, Europe act as a distinct place or idealised space; for others, it constitutes an important site of spatial transformation. We explore how these understandings are related to nations’ political and historical contexts, and their contemporary positioning within Europe.

The full article can be accessed here.

New article: Asserting the Nation

We are pleased that the latest article from the project has just been published in Sociological Research Online. In it, we draw on the 26 interviews we conducted with higher education ‘policy influencers’ across Europe and explore the ways in which students were understood by this particular group of social actors. We argue that, although many of the characteristics of students identified by our interviewees are evident across various nation-states, they were frequently discussed and explained in terms of very distinct ‘national narratives’.

The article is called ‘Asserting the Nation: the dominance of national narratives in policy influencers’ constructions of higher education students’ and you can read the full version here.

New article in ‘Compare’

We’re pleased to announce that a new article from the project has just been published in the journal Compare. In it, we explore some of the dominant constructions of students that emerged from our analysis of higher education policy documents in the six European countries. We consider students as, variously, ‘objects of criticism’, investors or investments, and bearers of rights or duties. We also assess how students are positioned spatially and, in particular, the extent to which they are seen as Europeans. You can read the full article here.

Reimagining the higher education student – call for chapter-abstracts

Higher education is of considerable importance to policymakers across the world, frequently viewed as a key mechanism for achieving a range of economic, social and political goals. Nevertheless, despite the importance attributed to higher education within policy, we have no clear understanding of the extent to which conceptualisations of ‘the student’ are shared across and within nation-states.

A central aim of the proposed edited collection is thus to bring together a range of scholars from different parts of the world and various disciplinary backgrounds (e.g. education, sociology, geography, media, political science, social policy) to investigate the ways in which contemporary higher education students are understood. The chapters will bring empirical evidence to bear on a range of dominant constructions of the student – for example, as consumers, significant political actors, future workers, dependent adults-in-the-making, as well as learners – and explore the extent to which these are patterned by nation-state, higher education institution, and the social characteristics of students themselves. Of particular interest is the ways in which these conceptualisations sometimes ‘jostle uncomfortably’ in relation to each other, with different stakeholders portraying students in somewhat contradictory or divergent terms

A proposal will be submitted to the Routledge/SRHE Research into Higher Education Series (see http://www.routledge.com/books/series/SRHE/) in spring 2019.

If you would like to have your work considered for inclusion in this edited collection, please send an abstract (of approximately 500 words) and a brief biographical statement to Rachel Brooks at the University of Surrey, UK (r.brooks@surrey.ac.uk) and Sarah O’Shea at the University of Wollongong, Australia (saraho@uow.edu.au) by 28 February 2019. Chapters could focus on one or more of the following areas:

  • Dominant understandings of higher education students within policy (either national or international policy) and the ways in which this reflects (or not) the relevant context
  • Perceptions of ‘being a university student’ as articulated by one or more of the following groups: students, higher education staff, policymakers
  • Media and /or marketing representations of students
  • Differences in understandings of students by particular social characteristics e.g. social class, ethnicity, gender, nationality
  • How understandings of students differ across national contexts and/or within particular national contexts
  • Ways in which academic scholarship has theorised students and the critical implications of this within the sector
  • Differences by academic discipline in the conceptualisation of students

New article: Students and university websites

A new article from the project has just been published in Higher Education. It is by Predrag Lažetić, and is called ‘Students and university websites—consumers of corporate brands or novices in the academic community?’.  It compares the positioning of students and corporate branding features on higher education institution websites within the higher education systems of Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Spain and Poland, and argues that  there is considerable diversity in the portrayal of student applicants, rather than a common construction as only consumers. You can read the full article here.

New article: constructions of students in English policy documents

An article from the project, entitled ‘The construction of higher education students in English policy documents’ has been published (open access) in the latest issue of the British Journal of Sociology of Education. The article argues that, contrary to assumptions made in much of the academic literature, students are not conceptualised as ‘empowered consumers’; instead their vulnerability is emphasised in documents by both government and unions. It also identifies other dominant discourses, such as students as ‘future workers’ and ‘hard-workers’, which articulate with extant debates about both the repositioning of higher education as an economic good and the use of the ‘hard-working’ trope across other areas of social policy. You can read the full article here.

New article: students as political actors

This week, our paper about students as political actors has been published in the Journal of Youth Studies. This draws on the focus groups we conducted with undergraduate students in three Irish higher education institutions and three English HEIs. In the article, we draw out some similarities between the students in both countries, but also point to significant variation – particularly in the extent to which they believed they could make a difference, politically. We suggest that this is related to the structure of the higher education system in the two countries and, specifically, the degree of marketisation. You can read the full article (which is open access) here.