Hazel Christie

‘A real rollercoaster of confidence and emotions’: learning to be a university student

Accounts of emotion and affect have gained popularity in studies of learning. This article draws on qualitative research with a group of non‐traditional students entering an elite university in the UK to illustrate how being and becoming a university student is an intrinsically emotional process. It argues that feelings of loss and dislocation are inherent to the students’ experiences of entering university, and that ‘coming to know’ a new community of practice is an emotional process that can incorporate feelings of alienation and exclusion, as well as of excitement and exhilaration. A broader understanding of how students learn then depends not just upon the individual’s emotional commitment to developing a new learning identity, but on the emotional interaction between the student and the learning environment of the university.

Performing (Housing) Markets

This paper offers an interpretation of how housing markets work which complements more traditional economic approaches. Building on a wider movement within cultural economy and economic sociology, it considers how (housing) markets are variously performed in the power-filled negotiations of buyers, sellers and market professionals. This is part of a larger undertaking, but here the focus is particularly on the role of legal, financial and information intermediaries in shaping local cultures of property exchange. This is a social rather than economic analysis of housing markets; it is a qualitative rather than a quantitative study. It is designed to shed light on how markets are made, though it might, in the end, change the way they are modelled.

Emotional Journeys: Young People and Transitions to University.

This paper offers an interpretation of the role of emotions in understanding the transitions that young people make to university. I draw on qualitative research with a group of non‐traditional students, entering elite universities, to argue that youth transitions are emotional as well instrumental affairs. I argue that choice‐making processes incorporate both trust in, and fear of, the transitions infrastructure, and that these emotions infuse more instrumental judgements about the economic benefits of higher education. I also demonstrate that emotional aspects of class – including feelings of entitlement to education and the rejection of normative student identities – constitute the experience of ‘being’ or ‘doing’ a student. A broader understanding of how young people become university students then depends not just on developing a new identity but on the complex interaction between emotion and infrastructure.

‘Day students’ in Higher Education: widening access students and successful transitions to university life

Abstract This article explores the experiences of widening access students at two prestigious universities in Scotland. It is based on interview data collected from a small sample of young and mature students who had all attended a widening access course prior to coming to university. The analysis centres on the students’ construction of themselves as ‘day students’, who live at home and combine studying with commitments to family or to paid employment. While they see being day students as a pragmatic response to their financial and material circumstances, it is argued that this disadvantages the students within the university system, both through their limited ability to participate in the wider social aspects of student life and through their exclusion from networks through which important information circulates.

The Emotional Economy of Housing

This paper offers an interpretation of the role of emotions in animating housing markets which complements more traditional economic and behavioural studies of locally based house-price inflation. Looking to debates within social psychology and cultural studies we suggest that emotions permeate the materiality and meaning of housing markets as well as the experience of individuals acting within them. Drawing on qualitative interviews conducted in Edinburgh, with households who bought in a rising market, we argue that housing transactions are emotional as well as economic affairs. We reconsider the fears that underpin what might appear to be ‘irrational exuberance’ and we argue that housing markets are propelled by a search for returns on emotional as well as financial investments.

Making Ends Meet: Student incomes and debt

This article seeks to explore the ways in which the current financial regime for supporting students impacts on the choices they make while studying for their first degree. It focuses particularly on the financial choices students make (or feel forced to make) in relation to work, debt and economising. It argues that the degree of discretion that students have is crucially related to the financial support they receive from their parents. However, even where parents are generous, most students seek an additional source of income to increase their autonomy in spending decisions. Parental attitudes are found to be important determinants of the ordering of drawing on other income. There is found to be a financially vulnerable group of students whose fragile financial position largely results from their parents being unable to offer much financial support; this group in particular finds their time at university characterised by considerable amounts of paid work and increasing debt.

From college to university: looking backwards, looking forwards

This paper reports on the first phase of a study of the experiences of a small group of students (35) that have entered an ‘elite’ Scottish university directly from Further Education (FE) colleges where they have studied Higher National Certificate and Diploma courses. Students’ experiences were gathered through in‐depth interviews and a standardised questionnaire on entry to the university. Students typically reported positive experiences of their previous courses, with good support from staff. A key concern was balancing study and other commitments, with support from families particularly important. Despite these concerns, the students’ responses to questionnaire items on their approaches to learning in FE were similar to the patterns of responses reported by successful Higher Education (HE) students in other studies. The students’ hopes and fears about HE encompassed both a sense of excitement about this stage as well as considerable anxiety at leaving the highly supportive FE environment.

Direct entrants in transition: becoming independent learners

This article investigates the dynamic transitions that college leavers make to university. It draws on qualitative research with a group of students who took direct entry to the second or third year of a degree programme at university, to show that successful transitions depend on the students becoming independent learners. It argues that the students who adapt best to the new learning environment are those who understand what independent learning entails, and who are good time managers. While the transitions experienced by direct entrants are comparable to those of students entering the first year of a degree more generally, the article recognises that there are differences. The difficulties experienced by many new students – including learning how the university works – may be exacerbated amongst direct entrants because they have less time in which to adapt to the new regime and their needs are often less visible at the institutional level.

From Further Education to Higher Education: Social Work Students' Experiences of Transition to an Ancient, Research‐Led University

In 2004, as part of its initiative to widen access, a Scottish university offered places for the first time to a group of students coming from further education (FE) colleges with Higher National Certificates (HNCs) and Higher National Diplomas (HNDs). A longitudinal study has followed the experiences of transition and subsequent progression of this cohort of students. The study, entitled ‘From FE to HE’ has interviewed and surveyed 45 students at key points since 2004. This paper reports on findings from the study overall, giving particular attention to the views and experiences of the nine Social Work students within the cohort. It will be argued that whilst FE colleges provide considerable support for their students, there is no easy transition to an ancient, research‐led university such as this one. The findings of this study have implications for all those involved in social work education.

It All Just Clicked: A Longitudinal Perspective on Transitions within University.

This paper explores the transitions that a group of students, admitted from further education colleges as part of broader widening access initiative at a Scottish research-intensive university, made across the lifetime of their degrees. It investigates how they negotiate their learning careers beyond the first year, and how they (re)define their approaches to independent learning as they progress to the later years of their courses. Evidence is drawn from 20 students who were interviewed during each of their three or four years of study to provide a longitudinal account of their experiences of engagement and participation at the university. We draw attention to three ways in which the students made transitions across the course of their degrees: to increased knowledge of the conventions of academic writing; to enhanced critical skills; and to practical strategies to prioritise learning.