Pathways To The Doctorate. A Multi-Institutional Investigation Of Access To Doctoral Study In The UK

Author(s):

Adel Pasztor(presenting / submitting)Paul Wakeling

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 06 D, Doctoral Programs in Various Perspectives

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-09

15:30-17:00

Room:

340. [Main]

Chair:

Aidan Seery

Contribution

Very little is currently understood about access to doctoral study, in spite of the staggering growth in postgraduate student numbers in UK higher education in the last two decades. There are now more than five times as many postgraduates than in 1990, prompting calls for further research (McCulloch and Thomas, 2013). Despite this huge expansion, very little is currently understood about access and the structure of doctoral opportunities, including whether inequalities seen at earlier stages of the educational system continue to manifest themselves at its apex. This is in stark contrast with the situation at undergraduate level where much research has been undertaken on inequalities in access to initial higher education (Boliver, 2006; Connor, 2001) and the barriers facing those from different groups (Archer et al, 2003; Hossler et al, 1999).

A substantial body of research on initial entry to higher education identifies cultural factors as a barrier to participation, where higher education is seen as unsuitable for “someone like me” (Reay et al 2005; 2009). But unlike at undergraduate level, financial support is not available for all doctoral students which may be a disincentive to students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds, especially given recent changes to undergraduate student finance which trebled the tuition fees. Such students might be expected to show ‘relative risk aversion’ (Breen and Goldthorpe, 1997) based on the cost (and length) of doctoral study and its uncertain outcomes.

In line with this, the study proposes a detailed investigation of how and why some graduates came to enter PhD study and others did not. The little extant research in this area neglects non-participants but it is essential to understand whether they differ from participants in their characteristics, attitudes and motivations. Since theories in the sociology of education seeking to explain mechanisms for the reproduction of educational disadvantage (rational choice and reproduction respectively) emphasise either the financial or cultural aspect of decision-making for disadvantaged students, the research will provide an empirical test for these two approaches.

Method

This British Academy funded research is based on a study of motivations and barriers in access to doctoral education, carried out between 2009 and 2012. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 53 British doctoral students and first-degree graduates who have not studied at doctoral level but who were in principle eligible to do so. Interviewees were students or graduates of one of four higher education institutions in northern England, southern England and London and had graduated in a range of disciplines including sociology, history, chemistry and law. We also draw on statistical data about higher education graduates and doctoral students.

Expected Outcomes

We show that access to doctoral study is strongly conditioned by the type of institution attended at undergraduate level. We further show that the experience of being a doctoral student and the likely future prospects of doctoral graduates are similarly stratified by type of institution (Boliver 2006; Mullen, 2009). The nature and patterns of institutional stratification observed in access to doctoral study tend to reflect and reproduce - but occasionally disrupt - broader patterns of social and educational stratification (Shavit and Gamoran, 2011). Our data shows that institutional habituses recognise and misrecognise embodied cultural capital and generate symbolic capital through degrees accorded differential worth within and without the field of higher education. However, there are also examples of advantages gone awry and of substantial upward mobility through accumulation of social and cultural capital (Bourdieu and Passerion, 1990), sometimes quite strategically. Whilst lack of economic resources is a decisive barrier to access in individual cases, entry to).. The nature and patterns of institutional stratification observed in access to doctoral study tend to reflect and reproduce - but occasionally disrupt - broader patterns of social and educational stratification. Our data shows that institutional habituses recognise and misrecognise embodied cultural capital and generate symbolic capital through degrees accorded differential worth within and without the field of higher education. However there are also examples of advantages gone awry and of substantial upward mobility through accumulation of social and cultural capital, sometimes quite strategically. Whilst lack of economic resources is a decisive barrier to access in individual cases, entry to prestigious institutions is also seen to facilitate subsequent access to doctoral study for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

References

Archer, L., M. Hutchings, and A. Ross. 2003. Higher Education and Social Class: Issues of Exclusion and Inclusion. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Ball, S., J. Davies, M. David, and D. Reay. 2002. “Classification and Judgement: Social Class and the Cognitive Structures of Choice of Higher Education.” British Journal of Sociology of Education 23 (1): 51–72. Boliver, V. 2006. Social Inequalities of Access to Higher Status Universities in the UK: The Role of University Admissions Decisions Boudon, R. 1974. Education, opportunity, and social inequality. New York: Wiley. Bourdieu, P., and J.C. Passeron. 1990. Reproduction in education, society, and culture. London: Newbury Park. Breen, R., and J. Goldthorpe. 1997. Explaining educational differentials: Towards a formal rational action theory. Rationality & Society 9, no. 3: 275–305. Brown, P. (2000) The Globalisation of Positional Competition? Sociology, 34(4): 633–653 Collins, R. (1979). The Credential Society: An Historical Sociology of Education and Stratification. New York: Academic Press. Connor, H (2001) ‘Deciding for or against participation in higher education’ HEQ 55 Gewirtz, S., S.J. Ball, and R. Bowe (1995) Markets, choice and equity in education. Buckingham: Open University Press Goldthorpe, J. 1996. Class analysis and the reorientation of class theory: The case of persisting differentials in educational attainment. British Journal of Sociology 47, no. 3: 481–505. Hossler, D., J. Schmit, and N. Vesper. 1999. Going to college. How social, economic, and educational factors influence the decisions students make. London: The John Hopkins University Press. Marginson, Simon (2008) 'Global field and global imagining: Bourdieu and worldwide higher education', British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29:3, 303 — 315 McCulloch, A and Thomas, L (2013) ‘Widening Participation to Doctoral Study and Research Degrees: Towards a Research Agenda for an Emergent Policy Issue’, Higher Education Research and Development, Vol. 32, no. 2, p. 214 – 227. Mullen, Ann L. 2009. "Elite Destinations: Pathways to attending an Ivy League Univerity." British Journal of Sociology of Education 30(1) Reay, D., M.E. David, and S. Ball. 2005. Degrees of choice. Social class, race and gender in higher education. Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books. Reay, Diane, Crozier, Gill and Clayton, J. 2009. ''Fitting in' or 'standing out': working-class students in UK higher education', British Educational Research Journal Shavit, Arum and Gamoran (2011) Stratification in HE: A comparative study Turner, R.H. 1960. Sponsored and contest mobility and the school system. American Sociological Review 25, no. 6: 855–67

Author Information

Adel Pasztor (presenting / submitting)

Newcastle University

Department of Sociology

Newcastle upon Tyne

Paul Wakeling

York University, United Kingdom

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