The COVID-19 pandemic is having profound impacts on higher education (HE) in Europe and worldwide in multiple aspects (Dodd et al., 2021). The way through which teaching is delivered has been transformed and the overall academic and social experience of being a student has been redefined. Research shows that the pandemic has exposed the majority of students to increased barriers to successfully participating in higher education – whether academic, logistical, financial, technological, cultural, or personal (Drane et al., 2021; O’Shea et al., 2021). However, under-represented student groups, e.g. those who are the first in their family attending university (First-Generation students), have been especially put at risk of seeing their positions deteriorating further compared to the general student population (Lörz et al., 2021; O’Shea et al., 2021). Therefore, understanding the barriers encountered by those students has become even more crucial during the current health crisis.

Questions of how First-Generation students and those from under-represented groups perceive HE during these challenging times need to be asked to be able to address critical issues determining student persistence, retention, and success. Simultaneously, we need to ask what are the resources, attitudes and dispositions that First-Generation students and others from under-represented groups have been able to mobilize to pursue their educational aspirations, despite the barriers and changes encountered.

By taking a holistic view on students’ journeys into and through HE, and by valuing their experiences and perspectives on study, work and personal life during the pandemic, this symposium brings together research that offers a view ‘from the margins’ (Hooks, 1990) of the changes and processes disrupting HE in these troubling times. The symposium aims to stimulate an intersectionality-informed discussion around First-Generation students and those from under-represented groups in different countries and institutional contexts. It will bring together four international perspectives (Austria, Spain, Germany and UK). The papers presented will offer a critical discussion of how the pandemic has affected students’ experiences and their everyday lives in order to deeply explore the changes of HE learning places and spaces. The papers will also offer theoretical, conceptual and methodological tools to critically reflect the meanings and configuration of HE in a post-pandemic scenario.

The symposium will start with a conceptual paper that views educational disadvantages for first generation students as an institutional effect at the intersection of the individual (agency) and the institution (structure). 

The second paper analyses the experiences of working-class students with non-traditional paths of access to Higher Education in Spain. The presenter shows that the pandemic has increased the difficulties of this group to develop a successful academic career, exacerbating previously existing inequalities.

The third contribution poses the question of how the pandemic influenced international student mobility (ISM) andaddresses differences of the realisation and change of ISM plans between first-generation students and students from academic families.

The last contribution rounds up the symposium by focusing on support available to first-generation students during the pandemic. While the findings problematize the lack of institutional support in student networks which is likely to further disadvantage these students, it questions the dominant deficit views of first-generation students and their family interactions. The contributors will argue that the emphasis on support as comprising social networks offers a much-needed lens to recognize interconnected patterns of relations between individuals and the resources available.

Dodd, E., Singh, S., Micsko, J., Austin, K., Morison, C., & Upton, S. (2021). Equalizing and widening access to higher education during a pandemic: Lessons learned from a multi-university perspective. Student Success, 12(3), 58-72. Drane, C. F., Vernon, L., & O’Shea, S. (2021). Vulnerable learners in the age of COVID-19: A scoping review. The Australian Educational Researcher, 48(4), 585-604. hooks, b. (1990). Marginality as a site of resistance. Out there: Marginalization and contemporary cultures, 4, 341-343. New York: MIT Press. Lörz, M., Zimmer, L. M., & Koopmann, J. (2021). Herausforderungen und Konsequenzen der Corona-Pandemie für Studierende in Deutschland. Psychologie in Erziehung und Unterricht, 68(4), 312-318. O’Shea, S., Koshy, P., & Drane, C. (2021). The implications of COVID-19 for student equity in Australian higher education. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 1-16.