Student Lives in Crisis: Deepening Inequality in Times of Austerity

by Lorenza Antonucci

Overview

In the greatest social change of the last twenty years about half of Europe’s young people now attend university. Their lived experiences are however largely undocumented.

Antonucci travelled across six cities and three European countries – England, Italy and Sweden – to provide the first ever comparison of the lives of university students across countries and socio-economic backgrounds. Contrasting students’ resources and backgrounds, this original work exposes the profound social effects of austerity and the financial crisis on young people.

Questionnaires and first person interviews reveal that, in contrast with what assumed by HE policies, participating in university exacerbates inequalities among young people. This work is a wake-up call for re-thinking the role of higher education in relation to social justice in European societies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781447318248
Publisher:	Bristol University Press
Publication date:	10/01/2016
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Lorenza Antonucci is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy/Sociology at Teesside Universitywhere she researches on inequality. Lorenza is also Research Associate at the European Social Observatory (OSE) in Brussels. She is co-editor of ‘Young People and Social Policy in Europe’ (2014). In 2015 she has been awarded with the Royal Society of Edinburgh Visiting Fellowship (2015). You can follow her on Twitter @SocialLore

Table of Contents

List of tables and figures vi

List of acronyms vii

Note on author viii

Preface ix

Acknowledgements xi

Introduction: Young people's lives at university in crisis 1

Part 1 University for all? How higher education shapes inequality among young people 15

1 Social consequences of mass access in Europe 17

2 How welfare influences the lives of young people in university 33

3 Beyond differences? Determinants of inequality among European young people in university 51

Part 2 Exploring the inequality of university lives in England, Italy and Sweden 65

4 Investigating young people's semi-dependence during university 67

5 The different profiles of young people's experiences in university 75

6 Explaining inequality: the role of social origins and welfare sources 107

Part 3 The 'eternal transition': young adults and semi-dependence in university 117

7 The family: saviour or 'inequaliser'? 119

8 The labour market contradiction: a precarious form of dependence 131

9 State: generous, conditional or absent? 143

Conclusion: Addressing growing inequality among young people in university 159

Notes 171

Annex 197

Index 207

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This incisive and penetrating analysis presents a major challenge to policy makers in rethinking the role of higher education in an era of heightened precarity and new social risks" Patrick Diamond, Co-Chair and Research Director of Policy Network

"Antonucci provides invaluable insight into the university experience in a context of growing graduate unemployment and decades of neoliberal policies. It's a must read for all those interested in education, the future and good policy." Judith Bessant, Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University

"Antonucci finds optimism in the politicization of students and a route away from mass debt and deception. Privately financed university schooling is a brand, not a good education.” Danny Dorling, Oxford University

Editorial Reviews

"This incisive and penetrating analysis presents a major challenge to policy-makers in rethinking the role of higher education in an era of heightened precarity and new social risks."

Patrick Diamond

"[In] university education . . . the provision of limited loans exacerbates the difference in life chances of those with and without family wealth. . . . Antonucci’s central thesis is that as the state has retrenched and private sources of welfare have become increasingly important. . . . She argues instead for a universal student support, on the basis that an assessment of family income currently does not account for debt or reflect the availability of support."

Observer - Daniel Boffey

"Will young people play a role in dismantling austerity in Europe? In an important contribution to the debate on inequality, Antonucci shows us the extent to which our system is failing its youth."

Lorenzo Marsili

"An eye-opening account of the material inequalities that young people face whilst at university. . . . Student Lives in Crisis should be read by anyone interested in higher education policies in Europe, young people's transitions, and those researching inequality and social mobility more generally."

LSE Review of Books

"An eye-opening account of the material inequalities that young people face whilst at university...should be read by anyone interested in Higher Education policies in Europe young people's transitions and those researching inequality and social mobility more generally." LSE Review of Books

"Not only a compelling read but also an excellent detailed discussion of the social processes at work in young people's lives." Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy

"Located at the intersection between academia and policy, this book makes a great contribution to the way in which European societies can begin to address the deepening inequality before and after times of austerity." British Journal of Educational Studies

"Will young people play a role in dismantling austerity in Europe? In an important contribution to the debate on inequality, Antonucci shows us the extent to which our system is failing its youth." Lorenzo Marsili, founder European Alternatives

"An important book showing that investing in higher education is not enough, we need to invest in better students' life to succeed in the knowledge based economy" Bruno Palier, Centre d'études européennes

"Antonucci's excellent and timely study hammers home the fact that there is insufficient focus on the stratified labour market and differences in the graduate premium across subjects and... across gender and race." Times Higher Education

From the Publisher

Antonucci's excellent and timely study hammers home the fact that there is insufficient focus on the stratified labor market and differences in the graduate premium across subjects and . . . across gender and race. . . . I’m often dismissed as an idealist, but a study such as this one shows clearly how the so-called realism and pragmatism of higher education policy makers fail to achieve the very goals that they claim to support. Why not aim high instead of low? When I put this book down, I was left thinking, ‘one solution: revolution.’

Book of the Week Times Higher Education

"Located at the intersection between academia and policy, this book makes a great contribution to the way in which European societies can begin to address the deepening inequality before and after times of austerity."

British Journal of Educational Studies

"Antonucci finds optimism in the politicization of students and a route away from mass debt and deception. Privately financed university schooling is a brand, not a good education.

Danny Dorling

"Antonucci provides invaluable insight into the university experience in a context of growing graduate unemployment and decades of neoliberal policies. It's a must read for all those interested in education, the future, and good policy."

Judith Bessant

"Not only a compelling read but also an excellent detailed discussion of the social processes at work in young people's lives."

Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy