STUDENT LIVES IN CRISIS

Contents

List of tables and figures

List of acronyms

Note on author

Preface: A post-Brexit preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Young people’s lives at university in crisis

Student lives in crisis and the context of austerity

The research

Myth busting: looking at real-life experiences

Structure of the book

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

1. Social consequences of mass access in Europe

Paradox of higher education policies: democratisation through inequality

Features of European higher education policies: the focus on access and destination

Students as young adults in a protracted phase of semi‑dependence

Beyond access and destination: how young people live in university

Conclusion

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

Comparing ‘welfare mixes’ in England, Italy and Sweden

Has austerity affected the welfare systems for young people in university?

Conclusion

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

Inequality and welfare state intervention

How relying on the family can increase inequality

How working during university can increase inequality

Conclusion

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

4. Investigating young people’s semi‑dependence during university

Researching young people in university

Life in university as protracted semi-dependence

Conclusion

5. The different profiles of young people’s experiences in university

Profile 1: Struggling and hopeless

Profile 2: Facing difficulties, but with hope for the future

Profile 3: Seeing university as a positive, but temporary, period

Profile 4: Feeling good in the present, worried about the future

Profile 5: Having a great time

Conclusion

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

‘Struggling and hopeless’: young people without family support and working in precarious jobs

‘Facing difficulties, but with hope for the future’: young people in search of additional resources

‘A positive, but temporary, period’: students that benefited from state support

‘Feeling good in the present, worried about the future’: young people with (temporary) family support

‘Having a great time’: young people with abundant family sources and no need to work

Conclusion: explaining inequality with social class and cross-national differences

Part 3: The ‘eternal transition’: young adults and semi-dependence in university

7. The family: saviour or ‘inequaliser’?

Use of family sources by the different profiles

Family and semi-dependence

Conclusion

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

How labour market participation changes across the profiles

Why university students have different experiences of precarity

Conclusion

9 State: generous, conditional or absent?

State sources and profiles

Dependence on the state: grants and loans

Effects of state support on young people’s dependence

Emerging adulthood or ‘eternal semi-dependence’: the role of welfare states

Conclusion

Conclusion: Addressing growing inequality among young people in university

Two messages

University was never for everybody?

Social investment or addressing inequalities?

European problems and national solutions?

Inequalities and ‘Generation Y’

Capturing the zeitgeist to change the terms of the debate

Notes

Annex

Combining Q-methodology and in-depth interviews

Methodological procedure

Index