Engagement and Employability: Student Expectations of Higher Education

Abstract The rise in tuition fees and moves towards the privatisation of higher education has changed the relationship between tutor and student to what many see as one of ‘customer’ and ‘provider’. As universities become increasingly concerned with attracting a student market there is a risk that education itself assumes an instrumental rather than a developmental focus, preparing students for employment in return for the fees they pay. Indeed employability agendas and the discourse of employability are to be found across higher education institutions, and often don’t sit easily alongside a parallel but perhaps contradictory focus on social responsibility and community engagement. This research article summarises the findings of a small scale project undertaken at the University of Brighton between 2012 and 2013. The project involved conversations with new undergraduates entering the university paying tuition fees that were three times as high as those entering the previous year, about their expectations of university life and their attitude towards social engagement and community based learning. Their responses, gathered through a face book poll, through surveys and through focus groups are supplemented by additional discussions with colleagues involved in employability or engagement programmes and with second and third year students who had undertaken engagement modules. Findings indicate that while undergraduates do come to university primarily concerned with themselves and their own futures, and looking for ‘a good degree, a good time and a good job’ these narrow views are open to challenge during their time there. It concludes that as educationalists we have a duty to confront narrow or instrumentalist views of higher education and should guard against a tendency to conflate ‘social engagement’ or an exploration of issues of equality and social justice,  with notions of  ‘employability’ or ‘enhancing your CV’