Toward a New Model of Student Debt Aversion and Tolerance: Evidence From English Higher Education

• In Event: 73.032 - Educational Policy Reform and Issues of Justice

Abstract

The ways in which students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds conceptualise debt in postcompulsory education have been examined from many perspectives. This research, however, draws on a recent and unusual case study: the English higher education system, in which headline fees have risen from £3,375 to £9,000 during a phase of rapid marketization. Responses to this hike were elicited from young people attending low participation schools, and form the basis of an updated model of student aversion and tolerance. A key feature is sensitivity toward differences between the (financial) ‘price’ of participation and the (cultural, social) ‘cost’ of participation. Changes to higher education funding models, it is argued, affect post-compulsory education decisions for all students, but not necessarily in the same way.

Author

• Steven Jones, The University of Manchester