Introduction

In the opening chapters of this book, we discussed the value of taking a generational approach to the study of Higher Education in the UK. We noted that the positioning of University as the next expected step from school for 50 per cent of young people has implications for the University's role both in educating, and in socialising, younger generations. Our study of prospective and current undergraduates, University staff (academics and those working in a student support role), and responses to the Mass Observation study explored how the meaning of the University is articulated and reflected in the accounts of those currently engaged with Higher Education. We have shown that students remain excited about the prospect of University education and that academics are overwhelmingly committed to educating the new generation of students. However, academics and students alike express an uneasy academic identity, borne out of a constant, lived contradiction between what they think a University should be for, and the purpose it is expected to serve today.

In this concluding chapter, we suggest how future research could build on the findings from the study presented in this book. We identify two broad themes: the wider factors that shape students’ expectations and experiences; and the implications of the ‘mental health crisis’. We conclude by reflecting on the generational transaction at the heart of the University, and its implications for the academic– student relationship.

Students’ expectations and experiences

In our study, prospective and current undergraduates articulated excitement about the opportunity for greater independence, more indepth study of their chosen subject, and the possibility of intellectual exploration. Yet they also expressed trepidation about the degree of freedom afforded to – and expected from – University students, expressed in terms of managing demands on their time, their own responsibility to their studies, and the extent to which they felt they received ‘value for money’ from the teaching they received. We have suggested that there are a number of drivers to this conflicted view, including the massification and schoolification of Higher Education, and the instrumental ‘student-as-consumer’ narrative that frames current policy and the behaviour expected from academic staff.