Foundation Degrees: who does them and why?

Foundation Degrees: who does them and why? Paul Greenbank Edge Hill University Business School

Introduction • Examine decision-making process • Foundation degree (FD) in business related subjects

Choice Evaluating options Generating options Collecting information Setting objectives Student decision-making • Rational approach often promoted • Step-by step • Comprehensive

Research methodology • Qualitative study involving taped interviews with 30 students • Interviews lasted 30-60 minutes using an ‘interview guide’

Characteristics of the students interviewed

Findings • Objectives, perceptions and motivations • Role of information in the decision-making process

Objectives, perceptions & motivations • Objectives • Literature suggests that the middle class have more of a ‘future orientation’ than the working class (e.g. Robertson and Hillman, 1997; Marshall et al., 1997) • Vast majority of students in this study (both working class and middle class) were considering their long-term futures • Objectives were, however, often unclear/vague

Perceptions • Twenty-three of the 30 students came on to the FD with the intention of progressing to a ‘full’ degree • Typical comments: • ‘I wanted the full degree – that was my driving factor. I wasn’t going to do it unless there was a top-up. I wouldn’t have done it otherwise …’ • ‘When you think of the word FOUNDATION just the word foundation, you just think it’s a LOWER thing … In school it was like foundation and THEN intermediate’.

Mature returners Underachievers Uninformed Motivating factors

‘Underachievers’ • Just 7 students • Young • Full-time • Typically male, middle-class and more likely to have studied A-levels • Believed they would be unable to obtain a place on a degree • Many also felt they would obtain better support at a college

These students often felt humiliated by their experiences • For example, one student said: • ‘In my first year at college doing the foundation degree if anyone asked what I was doing I said I was doing a degree. I would never say foundation degree because I would be going to parties with people from sixth form and they would ask: what you doing now? And I didn’t want to say oh I’m at college. I had told a couple of people and they had said: why are you doing it there? And I had got that sort of reaction so (pause) it was definitely off-putting having to do the foundation degree’.

‘Mature returners’ • 15 students (full- and part-time) • More working class • Lacked confidence • Often attracted by the opportunity to adopt an incremental approach to study

‘Uninformed’ • 17 students • E.g. unaware that they were potentially qualified to study for an honours degree • Uninformed included students from middle class backgrounds and those with parents, relatives or friends who had experience of HE

Role of information • Students only tended to utilise information from a small number of sources • Why? • Didn’t go through/unaware of UCAS • Lack of time • Psychological need to make a decision

As one student said: • ‘It was just the hanging around. I didn’t want to lose a month and not know. It was bad enough two weeks or ten days not knowing what I was going to do. I’d gone from school to sixth form and I’d always known what I was doing next. So I wanted to know, so I could set my mind to what I’m doing’.

Sources of information • In order of importance: • College lecturers • Parents • Siblings • Friends/relatives • Careers service • Websites and prospectuses

Research suggests that the working class have a preference for ‘hot’ information (e.g. Ball and Vincent, 1998; Hutching, 2003; Skeggs, 2004) • This study indicates that the same attitude was prevalent across different classes

Generating options • Students did not consider a range of subjects, courses or institutions • Why? • Did not adopt a rigorous approach to collecting information • The way they processed different options was also important

Trust • Trusted the information they received • A typical example is a student with 3 A-levels who went to an open day at her local college and spoke to the course leader of the FD: • ‘He came out and persuaded me to do the foundation degree. He came across really well, you know, really knowledgeable and that. He said we do like a degree course if you’ve done you’re A-levels and all this. And he said just like a degree you get your student loan and all that and I went yes that’ll do …’

Satisficing behaviour • The students tended to considered alternatives sequentially until they found one that was satisfactory • Failed to consider many alternatives • Low aspiration levels?

Limiting factors • Assumed all FDs were the same • ‘Means to an end’ • Geographical location: convenience • Familiarity • Cost

Conclusion and recommendations • Ability to generalise is limited: • Small sample • Sample only includes those who had decided to study for a FD • Contrary to other studies (e.g. Moogan et al., 1999; Purcell et al., 2007) the students in this research did not adopt very rational/comprehensive approaches to educational decision-making

Implications • Students need to be aware of the different options open to them • As one student commented: • ‘I never to be honest really sat down and thought what choices have I got’. • Whilst a ‘mature returner’ in her mid-thirties said: • ‘I would like to have been given more options early on … It upsets me a little bit when I think back because my life could have changed course in a completely different way’.

Decision-making skills/behaviour of students needs to be improved • Practical activities that encourage students to critically evaluate and change their decision-making (see Thompson et al., 2000; Loewenstein et al., 2003; Bazerman, 2006) • Advice available to students needs to be improved • Impartial • ‘Hot’ information • Accessible

It is also important that: • More research is carried out into how different ‘types’ of student make educational decisions • Role of FDs should be reviewed

Foundation Degrees: who does them and why?