'It's quite difficult letting them go, isn't it?' UK parents' experiences of their child's higher education choice process

This paper challenges the dominant discourse that Higher Education (HE) choice is a consumer choice and questions assumptions underpinning government policy and HE marketing. HE choice is largely viewed as a rational, decontextualised process. However, this interpretivist study found it to be much m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studies in higher education (Dorchester-on-Thames) 2018-12, Vol.43 (12), p.2161-2175
Main Authors: Haywood, Helen, Scullion, Richard
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Child Rearing
Children
choice
College Choice
Conflict
Consumers
Critical junctures
decision-making
Experience
Foreign Countries
Higher education
Marketing
marketisation
Parent Attitudes
Parent Student Relationship
parents
Parents & parenting
Recruitment
Teamwork
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Summary:This paper challenges the dominant discourse that Higher Education (HE) choice is a consumer choice and questions assumptions underpinning government policy and HE marketing. HE choice is largely viewed as a rational, decontextualised process. However, this interpretivist study found it to be much more complex, and to be about relationships and managing a transition in roles. It focuses on parents, an under-researched group, who play an increasing part in their child's HE choice. It finds that they experience this process primarily as parents, not consumers and that their desire to maintain the relationship at this critical juncture takes precedence over the choice of particular courses and universities. The role of relationships, and in this context relationship maintenance, is the main theme. This is experienced in two principal ways: relationship maintenance through conflict avoidance and through teamwork. These significant findings have implications for the way governments and universities consider recruitment.
ISSN:0307-5079
1470-174X
DOI:10.1080/03075079.2017.1315084