Getting your money's worth: how fees affect students' approaches to employability and university

Thesis

The last three decades have seen significant changes in the higher education (HE) sector in England. Alongside a shift towards a market-based approach to HE and the implementation—and subsequent raising of—tuition fees, there has been a growing focus on employability and getting “value for money”, together with a growing concern about the growing prevalence of the so-called “student-consumer”. Even today, university funding continues to be a shifting and divisive issue, with tuition fees at the forefront of debates around students returning to universities during the COVID-19 pandemic. By contrast, Scotland has retained a system-based approach to HE and free tuition for both Scottish nationals and EU students.

Though much research has looked at the possible impact of tuition fees on university applications, little has been done to explore what tuition fees might do to the way that students experience and approach university. This study therefore aims to fill an important gap in our knowledge about how students are reacting to the differing funding arrangements in England and Scotland. It asks, specifically: how do different university funding systems influence undergraduates’ approaches to employability and university?

To address this, the study employed a mixed methodology consisting of three phases: a scale development phase, a quantitative phase (involving surveying 700 students at six universities in England and Scotland), and a qualitative phase (involving interviews with a subset of over 30 students). Key findings showed that the relationship between university funding and how students approach university is complex and impacted by social background: while being from a lower socio-economic background was related to a higher consumer orientation, students who self-identified as working-class were shown to be more learner-oriented when paying tuition fees than not, while middle-class students were less learner-oriented when paying tuition fees than not. On the other hand, though social background did not appear to affect approach to employability, and there was no significant relationship between fee-paying and approach to employability, university country played a significant role: students in Scotland appeared to be more employability-savvy than their peers in England. These and other important findings have significant implications, both in terms of the two nations’ HE/labour market policies and the discourse around the student- as-consumer.

Authors: Nuseibeh, N

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-y5dd092bv
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: student attitudes; tuition fees; employability; higher education
• Subjects: Education