VIRTUAL EVENT: Students’ aspirations and the perceived value of a university degree

The session will explore the reasons students gave for pursuing HE and explore the way they perceive the value of their degree programme.

Drawing on 54 focus groups, conducted with 295 undergraduate students in 2017-18, the cross-country analysis focused on six European countries – Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Poland and Spain. 

Despite differences in HE structures, the data shows strong similarities in students’ views across Europe. The research also found that students’ aspirations can be varied and complex. 

However, when viewed from the perspective of future employment, students tended to believe that the value of their university degree was mediated by both the place and the subject of study, even in seemingly ‘horizontal’ HE systems.

Speaker

• Dr Achala Gupta, Research Fellow, UCL Institute of Education

Links

• Centre for Global Higher Education
• Department of Education, Practice and Society

Image: Alejandro Walter Salinas Lopez for UCL Digital Media