Conditions for higher education study: the perspectives of prospective students from rural areas
In a new scientific article, Klara Björkum at Campus Västervik and Goran Basic at Linnaeus University examine the conditions for higher education studies for prospective students from rural areas. The study analyses how prospective university students create and re-create a series of linguistic representations in two discursive categories: proximity/distance to study, and the programmes and courses offered.
Within the first category proximity/distance to study, challenges that the prospective students from rural areas may face are analysed, which involve the need to consider the physical distance to study, commuting options and the possibility to move to a new city where higher education studies are available. Themes such as moving, commuting, choice of location and the admission system are analysed as a number of tough decisions to be made in relation to the distance to higher education study. The second category on the courses and programmes offered analysed the possibility for further studies and the interviewees’ considerations concerning the importance of the location, preferences for physical studies versus distance learning, doubts about pursuing higher education and the concern about making the right choice at the application to higher education studies. The analysis also reveals stress between work and study options, and the abundance of options available in Sweden.
Both categories reveal the interviewees’ insecurities, concerns and contradictory wishes when navigating the complex flow of future prospects. Depictions of both conflicts and consensus in the study are analysed as tense as well as balanced in the prospective students’ linguistic representations in relation to proximity/distance to study as well as the course and programmes offered. The balance between conflict and consensus is a way of creating and re-creating commitment, integration, participation, unity and normality, which can be interpreted as a form of social pedagogical recognition that is important to the individual’s success in the context that the narratives reflect.
The article is published in Educational Research and is the third publication within the project ”Future students’ perspectives on higher education” run in collaboration between Campus Västervik and Linnaeus University.
The study contributes a valuable dimension to the understanding of how prospective students from rural areas describe the conditions for their entry into higher education.