The Diverse Student Experience: Investigations and Responses

1
The Diverse Student Experience Investigations
and Responses

• Anna Round
• Maddy McKinnon
• Student Services Centre
• Northumbria University

2
Diversity representation in HE

• Representation and opportunity
• Initial concern over class
• Higher education should no longer be a
  privilege but a right for all able young men and
  women, regardless of their families, class,
  incomes or position (Robbins Report, 1963)
• Increase in proportion of students from
  demographic groups under-represented in HE
• Increase in number of international students and
  in range of study modes

3
Diversity student experience

• Recognition of diverse student population and
  diverse experiences brought into and within HE
• Student support, academic practice and curriculum
  as sites for diversity awareness
• Legislation and provision 1997 Guide (CRE, EOC
  and CVCP), Equality Challenge Unit (2000 2006
  expansion), HEFCE benchmarks and PIs,
  institutional data collection
• Significant relationship to retention (NAO 2002
  report)
• Diversity as relevant to all students

4
New categories of diversity

• From staff interviews religious belief, parent
  status, commuter vs. non-commuter
• New financial regimes have built in an
  additional layer of diversity categories
  employed vs. not employed, living at home vs.
  living away, debt levels, income levels/poverty,
  subsidised vs. non subsidised
• These impact on practical issues of engagement
  with higher education and also on breadth of
  experience and expectations

5
Examples-the meaning of a job

• Constructions of part time work-students
• -a misfortune (Susan-lucky to avoid it)
• -a necessary evil (Catherine)
• -a low priority in relation to their studies
  (Liam)
• -a learning opportunity (Jackie-retains student
  role)

6
Examples-the meaning of a job

• Constructions of part time work-staff
• -part of the learning to manage conflicting
  demands-time/money
• -They are working to maintain a lifestyle
  (Margaret Hodge 2002)
• - how many hours? Different tipping points for
  different students
• -15 hpw too high-leaves no time for unstructured
  learning

7
What students should have?

• Staff showed varied levels of willingness to
  address what is an appropriate student
  lifestyle?
• Where staff did get more specific.
• - Students should live frugally - charity
  shops/Primark
• - Student funding plus part time income is
  enough-it is heightened expectations which cause
  the problem

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What should students have income
9
Percentage of students who spend on
10
Mean weekly student expenditure on
11
Mean weekly household expenditure
12
Differences in student expenditure
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Financial Diversity and Ethical Issues

• Student Finance as a learning experience?
• - more than just learning to budget for
  themselves?
• Parental Subsidy and Parental Role in HE
• - do we think of students as adults or children?
• Should HE accept or challenge social differences
  in resource?
• - do we accept that financial diversity means
  that some students get a much better chance to
  fulfill their potential than others?

14
Responding to new diversities

• How far can an institution respond to knowledge
  about an individual student and about its student
  population?
• Learning in a social context vs. learning about
  ones social context
• Student biographies and student identities
• Responsiveness vs. labelling vs.
  personalisation
• Diversity strategies which accommodate student
  transformations

15
Student narratives

• Students site themselves as learners in a
  personal and social context
• Prior learning, families, partners and friends
  all impact on their learning
• How I came to university is a heavily
  contextualised story
• Power of narratives vs. personal freedom and
  those who choose to avoid this model

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Diversity relationship to the subject

• Student interviewees had had very different
  journeys to university
• Staff are aware of very different issues in
  personal resources for engagement with the
  subject (time personal organisation, jobs,
  commuting, attitude preparation)
• Students felt that progressing through their
  course was changing them profoundly

17

• Questions?