A liberal higher education for all? The massification of higher education and its implications for graduates\u2019 participation in civil society

Gareth Rees,Ceryn Evans,Chris Taylor,Stuart Fox

doi:10.1007/s10734-020-00554-x

Abstract

In recent years, questions about the purpose of higher education (HE) have come to the fore as HE tuition fees have escalated both in the UK and internationally. The extent to which universities provide students with opportunities for developing skills needed not only for future employment but participation in civic life has become an important contemporary issue. Drawing on interviews with 29 graduates from three distinct types of UK higher education institutions (HEIs) (‘elite,’ ‘old’ and ‘new’), the paper explores the extent to which the pedagogical experiences provided by these different institutions offer students the sorts of experiences and skills needed for later civic participation. Our analyses suggest that the pedagogical arrangements in these institutions are highly differentiated and provide varying opportunities for developing civic skills. Whilst this potentially has significant implications for the cultivation of students’ civic skills and participation in civil society, we argue that civic participation is not so much determined by pedagogic or disciplinary cultures but is located on the intersection of ranging personal and social circumstances and pedagogic experiences.

Highlights

Universities in the UK have had numerous defining functions over the centuries, from those which emphasised the cultivation of civilisation and the transmission of culture across generations during the Victorian era (Anderson 1992), to more contemporary ideals which have foregrounded the economic contribution of universities to society (Dept for Business, Innovation and Skills 2011)
Trow’s (2005) assertion that the sharp distinction between elite and mass higher education no longer holds is brought to mind here; features typical of mass higher education exist in more traditional elite institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge within a mass HE system. Despite these STEM graduates having attended elite higher education institutions which according to Trow (2005) have pedagogic features such as close and prolonged student-teacher relationship, the degree discipline they undertook did not appear to help foster civic skills, perhaps because it did not engage them in the kinds of debate, discussion and critical thinking which is characteristic of humanities, arts and social science subjects
The transition from elite to mass HE has been paralleled by profound changes in the way in which HE is conceived and its purposes defined in the policy

Summary

Introduction

Universities in the UK have had numerous defining functions over the centuries, from those which emphasised the cultivation of civilisation and the transmission of culture across generations during the Victorian era (Anderson 1992), to more contemporary ideals which have foregrounded the economic contribution of universities to society (Dept for Business, Innovation and Skills 2011).

Results

Conclusion