Influences on living at home and attending a local university for young people from a UK deprived area

This paper offers a regional view (from a UK Area of Deprivation) into the inequalities associated with region and place in higher education (HE) participation. HESA (2021) data shows a shift to more young people from Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire deciding to `stay local´ for university. This finding is interesting in view of prevailing representations in policy (and, by extension, practitioners who are informed by government) of these young people’s decisions to stay local as the `low aspiration´ or `deficit´ option. This paper draws on a pilot study conducted in 2021 that explored influences on these young people’s decisions to live at home and attend a local university, using life-story interviews that shed light on their decision-making experiences. A Bourdieusian framework was applied to the data, through which the `habitus´ and `capital´ considerations behind participants’ decisions were explored. Through this, it was found that mobility within HE has a new dimension due to COVID-19 and that this year, staying local has not meant missing out on the university experience of moving away. It was also found that these young people were driven and ambitious due to them growing up around strong role models. The paper uses these interviews and findings to argue for a re-consideration of how to meaningfully categorise decisions to stay local for university. Most significantly, the findings add weight to arguments that working-class transitions to HE may be different , but they are by no means lesser . This has implications for researchers and practitioners in the field of widening participation, as they need to understand the experiences of young people if they are to influence them with their work.