Higher Education as an Arena for Political Socialisation: Myth or Reality?

Abstract

Political values and voting behaviour differ significantly between employees in the public and the private sectors, to the extent that some have called this one of the most important political cleavages in modern societies. But what causes these differences? The article outlines two hypotheses, one being the possibility that political values are shaped during higher education. To try and shed some light on this hypothesis, the political values of two groups of students at Agder University College in southern Norway were studied over a period of time. One group of students studied disciplines – nursing, social work, and teaching – that would almost without exception give them jobs in the public sector. The other group studied economics, a subject that for most of them would lead to a job in the private sector. Their political values were then measured at two points in time: when beginning study and after three years of studying. The main conclusion is that political values differ when the students begin to study, and that most political values change only marginally during the three‐year period. The few changes that occur during the period hint at a minor tendency for students to become more politically alike, indicating that higher education has a slight homogenising effect on political values. For one type of political values, however, rather dramatic changes take place. Both student groups acquire significantly more non‐authoritarian values during studies, indicating that higher education may be an important cause of such values.