1st Annual Halsey Lecture: What is a student? Perspectives from across Europe
Open to the public
Event followed by a drinks reception
This event is free - please register to attend
The Annual Halsey Lecture will be a lecture series celebrating excellence in sociology and the wider social sciences, named in honour of Professor Albert Henry Halsey, a central figure in the sociology of education.
What is a higher education student? Perspectives from across Europe
Professor Rachel Brooks, Department of Education, University of Oxford
Assumptions are often made within policy, as well as by academics, that what it means to be a higher education (HE) student in Europe today is common across nation-states – driven by the increase in cross-border educational mobility, the development of a European Higher Education Area, and the widespread impact of marketisation and expansion of higher education. Nevertheless, cross-national empirical evidence is rarely cited in support of such assumptions.
To address this gap, I have conducted research in six European nations (Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Poland and Spain) about how the contemporary HE student is conceptualised – drawing on perspectives from policy, the media and HE staff, as well as students themselves.
In this talk, I will outline some key constructions of students that emerged from the project. I will then examine the extent to which dominant constructions across and within nation-states are similar, engaging with the debates about the degree of homogenisation of HE across Europe, and the extent to which nation-states can be considered ‘coherent educational entities’.
I will suggest that there are also other important axes of difference to consider – beyond national boundaries and type of social actors – related notably to academic discipline, HE institution, and students’ social background. Finally, I will explore the impact of constructions, maintaining that they are not merely of academic interest, but have direct and material effects.
About Professor Rachel Brooks
Rachel Brooks is Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Education at Oxford and current President of the British Sociological Association.
She is also Chair of the executive editors of the British Journal of Sociology of Education, a member of the editorial team of the journal Sociology, and co-editor of the ‘Research into Higher Education’ book series, published by Routledge and the Society for Research into Higher Education.
She has been a member of governing council of the Economic and Social Research Council, and the education sub-panel for the UK’s national research assessment exercise (REF2021).
Rachel’s research focuses primarily on the sociology of higher education. Particular areas of expertise include international student mobility (and processes of internationalisation and Europeanisation in higher education more generally); student politics and protest; and ensuring equity in access to and outcomes within higher education.
About the Annual Halsey Lecture
The Annual Lecture is named in honour of Professor Albert Henry Halsey (Chelly to his friends and colleagues), a central figure in the post-war establishment of sociology as an academic discipline in the UK and a champion of the comprehensivisation of secondary schooling in England and Wales.
Part of the post-war generation of LSE-trained sociologists, he joined the University of Oxford as a Fellow of Nuffield College in 1962 and was the Director of the Department of Social and Administrative Studies, the forerunner of both the current Oxford Department of Sociology and the Department of Social Policy and Intervention.
Professor Halsey was a part of the Oxford community for over 50 years. His particular interests were in the sources of social inequality, social mobility, educational access and higher education.
