Managing Risk & Seeking Dignity: Working-Class Perceptions of University in London, Rochdale & Morecambe

This paper examines how working-class young people enroled at college in London, Rochdale and Morecambe perceive of university. It argues that university represents a great risk, associated with high levels of debt, which does deter some students, but at the same time, university is imagined as a meaningful vehicle for dignity and respect, which students place greater value on than the prospect of benefitting from the so-called "graduate premium". Broadly, then, it argues that the desire to attend university is predicated on three factors: the calculation of risk versus reward, the "migrant effect" for the children of migrants or those who migrated directly, and thirdly, the pursuit of dignity and respect.