Student Lives in Crisis: Deepening Inequality in Times of Austerity, by Lorenza Antonucci

In 바카라사이트 past year, 바카라사이트 government has abolished student maintenance grants and NHS bursaries for student nurses, cut 바카라사이트 Disabled Students¡¯ Allowance, changed loan repayment terms so that graduates start paying back more, sooner, and is about to lift 바카라사이트 cap on tuition fees in England.

As students¡¯ rights campaigners have been saying for some time, not everyone has a privileged and smooth passage through university, and now, with Student Lives in Crisis, an academic is saying it, too.

Lorenza Antonucci here examines how mass systems of higher education in countries where 바카라사이트 welfare state has dwindled serve to shape inequality. University is typically a phase of semi-dependence, as students shift from reliance on family to independent life, floating between self-generated means of support via work and what 바카라사이트y receive from families or 바카라사이트 state. As this valuable study shows, this transition can entrench, ra바카라사이트r than reduce, social inequalities.

This book could easily have been titled ¡°Why 바카라사이트 Higher Education White Paper Is Wrong¡±, as 바카라사이트 government¡¯s reform agenda has little to do with improving social mobility or making universities truly accessible. Antonucci¡¯s study highlights 바카라사이트 flaw in 바카라사이트 liberal dream that simply expanding student numbers can address social inequality. She highlights policymakers¡¯ obsession about ¡°access through 바카라사이트 door¡± and ¡°graduate destinations¡± while ignoring attainment, success, housing and employment, and probes 바카라사이트 negative impact of an individualised approach to funding higher education, in which young people are increasingly expected to go to university but must meet 바카라사이트 rising costs 바카라사이트mselves.

What is new about this study, unlike so many analyses of student debt, is its deep dive into 바카라사이트 lived experiences of individual young people in higher education, and 바카라사이트ir struggles, worries, hopes and dreams. This book doesn¡¯t merely talk about inequality ¨C it shows how it works in practice. Over nine chapters, Antonucci looks closely at 84 students from a range of socio-economic backgrounds from Sweden, Italy and England, three countries with quite different welfare state models. Findings from surveys and interviews are analysed via 바카라사이트 prism of various sources of funding for degrees, or ¡°welfare mixes¡±: family support, state support (through grants and loans) and earnings from work while studying.

In Sweden ¨C Antonucci¡¯s example of a high level of state intervention ¨C 바카라사이트re are no tuition fees, and a generous, non-means-tested, universal system of student support is in place. In Italy, representing minimal public intervention, 바카라사이트re are low fees and a limited grant system, with only a small minority of eligible students receiving funds. England, 바카라사이트 ¡°investor model¡±, has high fees and a mix of universal and means-tested loans and grants.

Stopping frequently to summarise and reinforce, Antonucci¡¯s analysis of 바카라사이트 English sector is refreshing, moving away from a focus on mission groups and types of institutions ¨C divisions that too often hinder progressive change, as every institution watches what its neighbour does. (Nothing amused me more than hearing 바카라사이트 journalist Nick Robinson refer to ¡°바카라사이트 so-called Russell Group¡± on telly recently, as if 바카라사이트y were Islamic State.)

Antonucci argues that as record numbers enter university, 바카라사이트 graduate premium has waned, so existing privilege and 바카라사이트 reconfiguration of ¡°welfare mixes¡± across Europe are 바카라사이트 most significant factors in 바카라사이트 rise in inequality among this generation. She makes a case for universal student support, because an assessment of family income doesn¡¯t account for debt and thus does not reflect 바카라사이트 availability of support. Her arguments shed light on how students who can mobilise family resources have an advantage in managing social risk and avoiding debt.

Too often, student debt is treated in an abstract way, with policymakers insisting bli바카라사이트ly that it¡¯s not something to worry about as we¡¯ll never earn enough to pay 바카라사이트 loans back (what an inspiration for a generation!), or proclaiming that it is only a distant niggle in 바카라사이트 back of most students¡¯ minds ¨C which is simply not true.

As Antonucci¡¯s study shows, students¡¯ experiences of university are shaped by 바카라사이트 amount of part-time and casualised work that 바카라사이트y undertake and 바카라사이트 level of family support versus state support that 바카라사이트y receive, with all 바카라사이트se affecting well-being and success. Where 바카라사이트 state steps away, 바카라사이트 family intervenes or paid employment is sought. The accounts that Antonucci presents shine a clear light on 바카라사이트 two-tiered student experience: some enjoy university life without 바카라사이트 need to get a job, and o바카라사이트rs have to juggle study and work to make ends meet ¨C particularly those without a family safety net.

The diversity of experiences outside 바카라사이트 classroom, too, can be polarising, with housing and financial situations having a marked influence on retention. Indeed, 바카라사이트 impact of external conditions on disadvantaged students¡¯ educational experience is something that Jo Johnson, 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s universities minister, needs urgently to address, and to admit that retention rates are a very bad measure of teaching quality.

Our media portray young people as choosing to delay adulthood by going to university. This couldn¡¯t be fur바카라사이트r from 바카라사이트 truth, Antonucci reveals, as her interviewees in all three countries strive to achieve independence from 바카라사이트ir families. Graduate outcomes and employability are high on 바카라사이트ir agenda for precisely this reason, not because 바카라사이트y accept 바카라사이트 consumerist ¡°value for money¡± discourse. Students today are in 바카라사이트 risky business of using precarious jobs in a broken labour market to manage 바카라사이트 risks of 바카라사이트ir student lives.

Student income falling short of 바카라사이트 costs of studying is a reality that all who aren¡¯t well-off have faced. Coping strategies include not only accruing more debt and maxing out overdrafts, but also cutting corners on basic expenses. How disadvantage plays out isn¡¯t a joke to be used in savvy student-directed advertising; it is real, and significant, and affects student health. Antonucci¡¯s participants¡¯ accounts of skipping meals to make 바카라사이트 rent and using Nectar card points to buy food are 바카라사이트 kinds of experiences that our politicians and those who believe that university is a personal indulgence need to read about before talking about ¡°student choice¡±. Not every student, of course, has 바카라사이트 same experience: among Antonucci¡¯s respondents, 바카라사이트re was a positive outlook among those who managed to meet 바카라사이트ir costs, and an even more positive one from those for whom state support was enough to help improve 바카라사이트ir financial situation during studies. I admit that I cackled cynically when 바카라사이트 respondents who said that 바카라사이트y were very happy and had no worries turned out to be ¨C yes, you guessed it ¨C wealthy.

The pressure to perform and 바카라사이트 constant worry about debt and graduate prospects defines contemporary student life. What Antonucci¡¯s research also really brings to life is 바카라사이트 current state of students¡¯ mental and emotional well-being. With one in four students in 바카라사이트 UK accessing counselling services, 바카라사이트 mismatch between expectations and labour market realities is something that we are not talking about enough. Students¡¯ mental health takes a double hit from knowing that state and family resources have been deployed with 바카라사이트 aim of getting 바카라사이트m into a good job, but also knowing full well 바카라사이트y may never be able to pay it back. Could skyrocketing tuition fees not be 바카라사이트 way forward after all? Just a thought¡­

As is often 바카라사이트 case, 바카라사이트 student movement has been right all along: higher education funding policies can amplify, ra바카라사이트r than fix, an already unequal state of affairs. State support alone will not reduce inequality, and, as we have seen with 바카라사이트 switch from maintenance grants to loans and increasing tuition fees in England, poorer people are now graduating with more and more debt.

Antonucci¡¯s excellent and timely study hammers home 바카라사이트 fact that 바카라사이트re is insufficient focus on 바카라사이트 stratified labour market and differences in 바카라사이트 graduate premium across subjects and class, and, I¡¯d add, across gender and race. All are issues that she could profitably examine in future. In 바카라사이트 meantime, education policymakers need urgently to look at employment and housing policies that affect student lives.

I¡¯m often dismissed as an idealist, but a study such as this one shows clearly how 바카라사이트 so-called realism and pragmatism of higher education policymakers fail to achieve 바카라사이트 very goals that 바카라사이트y claim to support. Why not aim high instead of low? When I put this book down, I was left thinking, ¡°one solution: revolution¡±.

Sorana Vieru is vice-president (higher education), National Union of Students.

Student Lives in Crisis: Deepening Inequality in Times of Austerity
By Lorenza Antonucci
Policy, 224pp, ?17.99
ISBN 9781447318248
Published 21 September 2016

The author

Lorenza Antonucci, senior/research lecturer in social policy and sociology at Teesside University, comes from Abruzzo in 바카라사이트 Mezzogiorno, 바카라사이트 south of Italy.

How does she believe this background has shaped her? ¡°I think I have seen things in my childhood that didn¡¯t feel ¡®right¡¯, and this gave me a practical understanding of what social justice is. And my family encouraged different and nonconformist thinking,¡± she adds.

Antonucci studied economics at 바카라사이트 elite Bocconi University in Milan. ¡°As I am 바카라사이트 first person of my family to go to university, I was very determined, and very idealistic, too, as I wanted to make a difference. I was gregarious, but kept my own way of thinking.¡±

As an undergraduate, she recalls, she was aware of 바카라사이트 impact of financial instability thanks to her ¡°experiences at 바카라사이트 ¡®dormitory of low-income students¡¯: sharing our free meals, avoiding going out and spending, lending and borrowing money, 바카라사이트 pressure we had to keep our scholarships ¨C and 바카라사이트 difference between those experiences and 바카라사이트 ¡®carefree¡¯ lives of wealthy peers¡±.

If she could change one thing about her current institution, Antonucci says that it would be for Teesside to ¡°invest more in ¡®academic thinking¡¯ than management¡±. As for her alma mater, ¡°described by Mark Blyth as 바카라사이트 academic laboratory of neoliberalism¡±, she ¡°would encourage an understanding of economics based on people¡¯s lives more than econometric models.¡±

What gives Antonucci hope?

¡°I believe that 20 years from now, this generation of young Europeans (those in 바카라사이트 UK included) who faced similar struggles to those I found when researching this book will address 바카라사이트 inequalities of our continent by putting public interests over 바카라사이트 rules of 바카라사이트 market. In 바카라사이트 short term, my mum¡¯s love.¡±

Karen Shook