From life crisis to lifelong learning: Rethinking working-class 'drop out'

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From life crisis to lifelong learning 8 HE has a critical role to play in the community, both as a social and cultural centre and as a community leader. (DfES, 2003a, p. 41) We believed it was crucial to place universities in their local contexts and explore the perspectives of a range of local stakeholders on ‘drop out’ and its causes and impacts. This was followed by in-depth interviews with 67 full-time undergraduate workingclass students under 25 who have withdrawn early from the four universities over the past five years. In three of the four institutional samples, there were more men than women (see Figure 1). This reflects national trends where young men are more likely to withdraw early from university than young women (HEFCE, 2005). Although we did not aim to have mainly white participants, the overall sample contained only one minority ethnic student. This reflects the localities studied where ethnic minorities are not well represented. In Northern Ireland, for example, minority ethnic groups constitute only 1 per cent of the population. We do not claim that ‘drop out’ is only a ‘white issue’. Although, overall, participation in HE is higher for minority ethnic working-class people than for white, there are many inequalities that the statistics on race and participation tend to hide, such as lack of access to elite institutions and subjects, institutional racism and marked differences across ethnic groups (see Connor et al., 2004). When it comes to withdrawing early, the preliminary DfES figures discussed by Connor et al. (2004) suggest that: Figure 1 Gender of participants by institution Number of participants 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 A B C D Universities Male Female
Introduction … non continuation figures are higher for Asian and Black than White students, but when allowances are made for differences by subject, entry qualifications and age (i.e. the usual HEFCE ‘benchmark variables’) young minority ethnic students on full time courses appear to do slightly better (continuation-wise) than expected. (Connor et al., 2004, p. 60) Race is an issue in ‘drop out’, but there are many national variations. Our study is most useful in focusing on provincial, white, working-class young people and, in particular, on white men. In doing so we are highlighting a group who are doing least well in educational terms and who tend to be ignored and marginalised: … young women in England are 18 percent more likely to enter HE than young men. This inequality is more marked for young men living in the most disadvantaged areas and is further compounded by the fact that young men are less likely than young women to successfully complete their HE course and gain a qualification. (HEFCE, 2005, p. 10) Analysis of class based on ‘use value’ suggests that it is young, white, working-class people who are positioned as most ‘redundant’ in UK society, their labour no longer needed and they themselves not even possessing the cultural value that can attach to multiculturalism (Skeggs, 2004). Our strong focus on young, working-class, white men in disadvantaged provincial areas can therefore be seen as a strength of this study, and of particular interest to policy makers. The findings of the research jury days and the interviews with students were interrogated in an international participative colloquium involving researchers, practitioners and policy makers. The colloquium also considered a set of specially commissioned international research papers exploring how ‘drop out’ was understood in other countries The issue of flexibility and return to study emerged as particularly important. Consequently, we completed the study by interviewing university careers and employment services, and also conducted a small survey of those knowledgeable about university admissions processes. 9
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From life crisis to lifelong learning: Rethinking working-class 'drop out'

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