Session Information
ERG SES C 13, Media, creativity and career development
Parallel Paper Session
Contribution
This paper considers the results of a study which set out to consider the experiences of students from diverse backgrounds once they have enrolled on a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) degree at a UK university. There is much work on the initial barriers to Higher Education (HE) participation (for example, Archer et al, 2003 and Gorard et al, 2006), however, the playing field is not levelled once students from under-represented groups actually enter university (Yorke & Longden, 2004). The study set out to address the following questions:
What do students expect from university upon enrolment on a STEM degree?
Do students from ‘non-traditional’ university backgrounds have the same expectations; both of the course itself and of the outcomes they anticipate from it?
How far do unmet expectations affect students’ motivation; for example motivation to persist with the course or to pursue a career in the field?
The theoretical starting point of the research was an analysis of the various policies framing the ‘Widening Participation’ agenda, and those which consider inequalities in STEM fields in particular. Widening Participation is an important issue in HE throughout Europe, and STEM education is the focus of policy-making and research throughout the EU; being seen as vital for economic development. Within the scientific disciplines in particular, Widening Participation is an EU-wide issue, with large-scale research considering participation in STEM from school to university, and into the workplace. Projects like WISE (UKRC 2011), Women in Science (RSC, 2011), or the Athena Project (Imperial College London, 2011) focussed on female participation in STEM, and various EU projects concerned with ethnic minority participation, for example ETHNIC (European Association for the Education of Adults, 2012, European Commission, 2012, CORDIS, 2012) are concerned with equal access to STEM.
The research in this paper considers the practical applications of these policies for students once they have entered university. It considers whether students from under-represented groups experience university in the same way, and whether the work undertaken to overcome the barriers experienced by many is enough to adequately prepare them for the process of studying for a degree. The study examines the attitudes of students from various social backgrounds when they arrive at university. By gathering information on the expectations of students on first day of their course, the research considers how prepared students are, and indeed how prepared students feel (Rowley et al, 2008). It also records their experiences as their course progresses and how these may (or may not) meet their expectations. By following the students through their course, the study considers how unmet expectations, or a lack of adequate preparation, may affect students’ views on the outcomes they anticipate; for example wanting to pursue a career in their field of study.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Archer, L., Hutchings, M., Ross, A., (2003), Higher Education and Social Class: Issues of Exclusion and Inclusion, London: Routledge CORDIS, (2012), Projects, Raising Public Awareness of Science and Technology among Ethnic Minorities, [online], Accessed January 2012 from: http://cordis.europa.eu/search/index.cfm?fuseaction=proj.document&PJ_RCN=6159853 European Association for the Education of Adults (2012), Ethnic Minorities in Science and Higher Education, [online], Accessed January 2012 from: http://www.eaea.org/events.php?aid=4024 European Commission (2012), ETHNIC, Research and Innovation, [online], Accessed January 2012 from: http://ec.europa.eu/research/star/index_en.cfm?p=02_intro Gorard, S., Smith, E., May, H., Thomas, L., Adnett, N., & Slack, K., (2006) Review of Widening Participation Research: Addressing the Barriers to Participation in Higher Education, A report to HEFCE by the University of York, Higher Education Academy and Institute for Access Studies, [online], Accessed January 2012 from: http://www.ulster.ac.uk/star/resources/gorardbarriers.pdf Imperial College London (2011), Athena Project [online], accessed December 2011 from: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/hr/equality/academicwomen/athena Rowley, M., Hartley, J., and Larkin, D., (2008), Learning from Experience: the Expectations and Experiences of First-year Undergraduate Psychology Students, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 32(4), pp.399-413 RSC (2011), Women in Science, The Royal Society of Chemistry [online], accessed December 2011 from: http://www.rsc.org/ScienceAndTechnology/Policy/Documents/WomeninScience.asp UKRC (2011), WISE, The UK Resource Centre [online], accessed December 2011 from: http://www.theukrc.org/get-involved/wise Yorke, M., & Longden, B., (2004), Retention and Student Success in Higher Education, Maidenhead: Open University Press
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