The individualisation of financial risk in higher education through tuition fees and the discourse around employability outcomes has often been coupled with a demarcation of low and high value courses. The benefits of a highly educated workforce to broader society, or a more equitable share of university opportunities are rarely considered. However, research has shown that students do not necessarily subscribe to a marketised view of higher education (Budd, 2017; Tomlinson, 2017), with Muddiman (2018) pointing to a more active and less instrumental ‘being’ mode of learning.

Drawing on Burawoy’s assertion (2014) that sociology is infused with moral purpose, this paper explores how sociology undergraduate and postgraduate students understand and discuss their disciplinary choice and future in three national contexts of Norway, England and Hungary. It also uses the notion of Bernsteinian powerful knowledge to understand the self within the discipline, and the intent to disrupt broader classed, racialized and gendered inequalities (McLean et al. 2013). 

This mixed-methods study is based on an international comparative design (Phillips and Schweisfurth, 2006; Yin, 2009). Drawing first, on administrative secondary data, the paper explores how student numbers at Bachelor, Master and Doctoral level sociology courses have changed over time within the different national contexts. The overall patterns of enrolment of undergraduate and postgraduate students are contextualised with data about the broader social sciences, and university expansion in general. Second, using interview evidence from three case-study countries, current students’ perceptions on their subject choice and possible future careers are drawn. Using a total of 38 face-to-face or online semi-structured interviews with sociology Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral students, the similarities and differences in Hungarian (N = 17), English (N = 9) and Norwegian (N = 12) students’ views are outlined.

This paper looks first at the mixture of motivations sociology students discuss regarding their disciplinary choice, such as: self-expression through sociology; experience of inequalities affecting others; broad interest in society and politics; and a generalist degree for employability. Second, it explores the diverse understandings of how one becomes a sociologist. An open interview question allowed students to discuss a wide range of issues relating to the temporal aspects of professional standing as well as the spaces of disciplinary belonging. These related to the training and career elements they deemed necessary for someone to be classed a sociologist; the skills, attitudes and the sociological imagination one needs to exhibit, as well as purpose of those actors within the field. Third, this paper compares how students understand the roles of a sociologists in society, including a discussion of the outputs and audiences of sociological research and teaching drawing on Burawoy’s discussion of public, policy, critical and professional sociology (Burawoy et al. 2004, Burawoy, 2014).

Budd, R. (2017). Undergraduate orientations towards higher education in Germany and England: problematizing the notion of ‘student as customer.’ Higher Education, 73(1), 23–37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-015-9977-4 Burawoy, M., Gamson, W., Ryan, C., Pfohl, S., Vaughan, D., Derber, C., & Schor, J. (2004). Public Sociologies: A Symposium from Boston College. Social Problems, 51(1), 103–130. https://doi.org/10.1525/sp.2004.51.1.103 Burawoy, M. (2014). Sociology as a vocation: Moral commitment and scientific imagination. Current Sociology, 62(2), 279–284. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392113515796 McLean, Monica, Andrea Abbas, and Paul Ashwin. ‘The Use and Value of Bernstein’s Work in Studying (in)Equalities in Undergraduate Social Science Education’. British Journal of Sociology of Education 34, no. 2 (2013): 262–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2012.710007. Muddiman, E. (2018). Instrumentalism amongst students: a cross-national comparison of the significance of subject choice. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 39(5), 607–622. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2017.1375402 Phillips, D. & Schweisfurth, M. (2006). Comparative and international education: an introduction to theory, method and practice. London: Continuum. Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: design and methods. Thousand Oaks, California: London, Sage.