What is it about?
Students on a foundation programme in the north of England arrive with a complicated mix of background factors which can make it more difficult to succeed. Many of these students are the first in their families to attend university, and are wanting to secure a better life for themselves and their families. A “kinship tax” system of obligations constrains their engagement in their studies.
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Photo by Adli Wahid on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Not all students have the same chances of succeeding at university. If we understand students lives better, and the challenges they face, as well as what motivates them, we can try to remove obstacles that get in the way of their success. This allows them a better chance of doing as well as other students who don’t face the same challenges, and makes outcomes fairer.
Perspectives
As a South African with experience in the SA university system, I was struck by the similarities between how Black students in SA describe “black tax”, which affects their abilities to engage with their studies, and what these students in a very different context were describing. The complex system of family support which enables them to study and provides emotional and other resources to them, act at the same time as a constraint, competing with their studies for their time, energy and attention.
Dr Vicki Trowler
University of Huddersfield
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: 'To secure a better future': the affordances and constraints of complex familial and social factors encoded in higher education students' narratives of engagement., Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, November 2019, The Open University,
DOI: 10.5456/wpll.21.3.81.
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