‘The standard is the standard’: constructing meritocratic student selves through sense-making on academic writing

Higher education initiatives to support students from low socioeconomic backgrounds are widespread. However, there is pervasive concern within public discourse that such widening participation efforts have contributed to a ‘dumbing down’ of higher education. There are classed dimensions to evaluations of (dis)advantaged students’ university (un)preparedness. Our investigation centres the under-researched voices of students in exploring these tensions. Using vignette methods, we investigate students’ views on how universities should accommodate the needs of disadvantaged students in a highly affective field of practice—academic writing and assessments. We detail how class-based exclusions are (re)formulated through the misrecognition of dis/advantages, and assumptions of meritocracy, which underpin students’ suggestions. We close by proposing that greater public discussion on social class inequities may aid students in understanding their potential role in reducing classed inequities, in higher education and beyond.