Students' perceptions of value and motivations for studying an undergraduate degree in the humanities

Abstract

This research examines how humanities students understand the purpose of going to university and the value of their degree in an increasingly market-driven higher education policy context. Utilising a sequential (follow-up) explanatory mixed methods approach, the research focuses on one particular institutional context to allow for an in-depth investigation. Data was collected from students studying for an undergraduate degree in the humanities at a UK research-intensive university, who commenced their studies between 2012-13 and 2015-16, and from graduates who commenced their studies prior to 2012. The main findings suggest that there is a complex web of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations for studying an undergraduate degree in the humanities, strongly shaped by three core influencing contexts (societal, familial, educational). Strong media and political discourse on the financial investment and return of an undergraduate degree make humanities students feel that it is not enough to quantify the value of their degree in terms of its intrinsic value (i.e. their love of the subject area), thereby creating an inner conflict as they feel pressured to attribute a value to their degree based on their future employment outcomes. As such, perceptions of value are enacted in the policy context of marketisation and the impact of oversupply and competition. Graduates who studied under a lower or no tuition fee regime were less likely than contemporary counterparts to have instrumental motivations, however nonetheless reflect on the value of their degree in the context of their success in negotiating the graduate labour market. Humanities students under a higher university tuition fee regime are more likely to have consumerist attitudes compared with those who studied under a lower or no tuition fee regime. With the voice of humanities students noticeably missing from existing literature, this research seeks to fill this gap by offering a deeper and more nuanced understanding as to how the marketisation of higher education has influenced students’ motivations and choice relating to university and shaped notions of the value of a degree.