Master of Research Project
My Masters’ research project is entitled Yearning to Earn or Yearning to Learn? Mobilising the Bourdieusian Concepts of Habitus and Capital in the Analysis of Students’ Expectations, Experiences and Aspirations in Higher Education. It will look at the way in which higher education is often marketed as producing work ready graduates. The suggested increased prospect of employment and higher earnings may be changing perceptions regarding the value of having an undergraduate degree and incentivising individuals to attain a university education. However, there are structural barriers to higher education that impact on the ‘new’ student population. For example, first generation students, who make up a large proportion of the student population at the University of the West of Scotland, have no family background of university education and, as a result, face greater obstacles to access and learning. Furthermore, many of these students face a struggle to balance university life with home and work commitments due to their financial situation. Mobilising the Bourdiuesian concepts of habitus and capital, and employing a mixed model survey that will produce rich quantitative and qualitative data, the research will examine UWS students’ expectations, aspirations and experiences of higher education. It will examine the students’ motivations to undertake undergraduate study and to attain a degree, placing a central focus on the importance students place on developing economic and cultural capital.