White Working Class Males in British Higher Education
rely on their access to social , cultural and economic capital to make their transition easier , smoother and stress-free .
Prevalent discussions about transitions to HE position working-class students as needy , in the sense of personally inadequate and unable to cope with the rigours of transition . In rejecting this position , we should talk more of rights : the right to enter university successfully and succeed . This is a common right of all students , but structural disadvantage ensures that many students require support if they are to take up this entitlement ( Quinn , 2010 , p . 125 ).
Echoing the point Quinn made , that providing support to students in their transition into higher education should be part of the efforts universities are making to ensure that the student experience is equal and inclusive for all students , one of the focus group participants made clear that they are at a disadvantage when compared to their peers who have parents who have gone to university :
When I applied to come to university my mum and dad had absolutely no idea how to even begin to go about it . … They just don ’ t have the knowledge of how to actually go about applying or what universities to look at or just anything like that , just don ’ t really have the knowledge ‘ cause nobody … has done it before .
For white , working class male students like this student , the process of transitioning or becoming a university student begins with the daunting task of figuring out how to enter university without the guidance of his parents . The topic of transitions into higher education , and the impact it has on recruitment , progression , persistence , retention and completion , have been explored in existing literature ( Gale and Parker , 2014 ; Lehmann , 2014 ; Quinn , 2010 ). This is not a new area of interest , since ‘ student transition – i . e . change navigated by students in their movement within and through formal education – has a long history of examination in the international research literature ’ ( Gale and Parker , 2014 , p . 734 ). While the issue of transitioning into higher education was not explicitly written into the semi-structured focus group guide , the theme emerged in the data mostly through the responses given to these questions :
• What concerns do you think some students have when they consider whether or not to go to university ?
• How did you decide to go to university ? What was that process like ? What did you consider ?
Additional data relevant to this theme emerged from the qualitative survey responses to the question :
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• What were the main reasons you chose to attend the University of Portsmouth and not another university ?
Many of the survey respondents and the focus group participants indicated that their university choice was influenced by the university ’ s proximity to home , specifically close enough , but not too close , as illustrated by these quotes :
Not too far away from home but a good distance to experience a completely new place .
“ You find that being independent isn ’ t as hard as you thought and especially when everything ’ s within reach .
It ’ s definitely not as bad as I was expecting .” --focus group participant