“Remedial,” Development, and Business: Three Opposing but Coexisting Approaches to Academic Student Support

Abstract

This chapter outlines three opposing but coexisting approaches to academic support that emerged from my 2018 PhD enquiry: What is the role of academic support in contemporary UK Higher Education (HE)? Data from 17 interviews with academic support staff and managers from 6 different institutions (different origin, status, subject, scale, geographic location) were analyzed thematically in the context of key UK HE government-commissioned reports and policy (1963–2016), as well as literature on the evolving role of UK HE academic support (1960s–2018). Bourdieu’s field analysis provided a conceptual framework with which to understand the complex interrelationships between contexts, perceptions, and practices. Analysis revealed academic support to be negotiating and alleviating politically driven conflicts, at the same time as adhering to social values. These conflicts are exemplified in three different academic support approaches: “remedial,” development, and business. “Remedial” and business are both politically driven by competition and commerce, while, in stark contrast, development emerged from practitioners’ aspiration to empower individuals for social advancement. This chapter explores the nature and origins of each of these coexisting approaches.KeywordsAcademic student supportRemedying deficitsLearner developmentStudent satisfactionSocial versus economic values