What is higher education all about from the student perspective? Phenomenographic study on student experiences

Abstract

Higher education has been challenged in various ways in the last three decades. Massification, emergence of new teaching and learning methods, marketization and trade agreements, change in funding schemes, cooperation/competition dynamics all these challenges fundamentally change higher education sector. These changes in education context influence the way the idea of higher education is understood and redefines the role of higher education actors, including students. Moreover, the changes have consequences for higher education policy as a whole. In order to better understand and cope with the changing education context, higher education researchers need to examine closely the higher education processes and the position of the higher education actors. The present research will contribute to this agenda, by focusing on higher education in Finland.

The purpose of the research is to discover the variety of conceptions experienced by students - conceptions about the idea of higher education and about the role of students in higher education - in order to better understand student perspective on these matters. The main questions guiding this research are: (1) How do students understand the idea of higher education?; (2) How do students perceive their role in higher education? The research applies qualitative phenomenographic methodology which focuses on personal experiences with different phenomena. Phenomenography is an inductive qualitative research methodology that explores phenomena through different descriptions of ideas, understandings, and conceptions. The research method used is individual, in-depth interview with open-ended questions; interview which often had a form of dialogue. 8 interviews were conducted with 8 participants-students from the University of Tampere in Finland: 4 participants study in the Schools of Social Sciences and Humanities and 4 study in the School of Information Sciences.

The research discovered 21 categories of description - 10 related to the idea of higher education and 11 related to the role of students in higher education: (1) Higher education is related to society, (2) Higher education is a network, (3) Higher education is binary, (4) Higher education is related to knowledge, (5) Higher education is related to time, (6) Higher education is personal growth, (7) Higher education is profession provider, (8) Higher education is on the top, (9) Higher education has changed, (10) Higher education is something else than university; (11) Students are members of the wider society, (12) Students are members of the student population, (13) Students are part of higher education system, (14) Students are active, (15) Students are resource, (16) Students are customers, (17) Students are neglected, (18) Students are stressed, (19) Students are transformed, (20) Students are employed, (21) Students are free. The categories of description are analysed in terms of their referential and structural aspects, and illustrated by participants' quotes. The research results, including the relationships between the categories, are visually presented in an outcome space.