We examine relationships between motivations towards higher education choices, gender and beliefs about the financial consequences of these choices. We control for home background, school type and students' expectations of grades they will achieve at age 16. We use a unique individual-level UK data set from a random sample of schools with a…

This paper investigates differences in higher education outcomes according to the qualifications with which students enter university. The study is situated in the context of increasing marketization, competition and privatization in post-16 qualifications, combined with an increase in students entering higher education with either vocational…

This article discusses the reasons offered by one group of paraprofessionals to explain their decision to study for a work-related higher education programme. It reports on an ethnographically inspired piece of research that aimed to capture the initial motives that a group of teaching assistants had for studying for a Foundation degree at a…

In this paper, we develop an information distortion model (IDM) of social class differences in self-beliefs and values. The IDM combines psychological biases on frame-of-reference effects with sociological foci on ability stratification. This combination is hypothesized to lead to working-class children having more positive math self-beliefs and…

The UK government's austerity cuts have negatively impacted many voluntary-sector interventions that provided support to refugees. One such intervention, the Refugee Integration and Employment Service (RIES), is discussed in this paper. The RIES was a UK Border Agency-funded integration programme for recognised refugees and operated through…

Higher education (HE) is often viewed as a conduit for social mobility through which working-class students can secure improved life-chances. However, the link between HE and social mobility is largely viewed as unproblematic. Little research has explored the possible impact of academic failure (in HE) on the trajectories of working-class students…

This paper represents a contribution to the Skills Commission's call in 2009 for more research into the attitudes of apprentices towards advanced further education and higher education. Understanding of the perspective of apprentices has been argued to be important to informing any policy change aimed at increasing the low progression rate of…

This paper is based on research that examined intergenerational dynamics amongst British South Asians regarding education and family life. The study investigated the perspectives of grandparents, parents and young people to establish how family attributes and education were perceived by these three groups. The methods used to gather data were…

In this article, I explore men's educational experiences and aspirations in the context of UK policy discourses of widening participation and migration. Critiquing discourses that oversimplify gendered access to higher education, I develop an analysis of the impact of masculine subjectivities on processes of subjective construction in relation to…

This paper is based on a small-scale mixed-method research project, which was located in south-east England and was funded by the British Academy. The project, investigated the factors that affected young people's decisions not to progress to higher education (HE) after following a Level 3 vocational pathway in upper secondary education. Set…

I explore the question of men's participation in higher education (HE) in relation to shifting, discursive and intersecting masculine subjectivities by drawing on qualitative interviews with men participating in HE. The paper contributes to a sociological understanding of the impact of masculine subjectivities on higher educational participation…

Purpose: The aim of this research is to draw from a project sponsored by the Higher Education Academy and undertaken jointly by researchers at the University of Southampton and The Knowledge Partnership UK, which aimed to investigate the likely impact of the recently introduced new fees regime on students' attitudes to HE and to issues of debt.…

Intra- and inter-generational social mobility have been implicit to a wide range of UK Government policies aimed at promoting social inclusion through a focus on education and employability. Framed by these policy initiatives and a critical look at widening participation in higher education, this paper reflects on the impacts of university…

Progress towards the British Government's goal of 50% of young people undertaking higher education has been slow, particularly among pupils from working-class backgrounds. This study examines the range of viewpoints held by 53 Year 12 pupils in a former coalfield area, all of whom were eligible to apply for university. Each completed a Q-sort on…

This paper reports how students talk about their aspirations in regard to higher education (HE) and their mathematics, what "repertoires" they use to mediate this discourse, and how students' predominant "repertoire style" relates to their cultural background. Our analyses draw on an interview sample (n=40) of students selected…