Students as future workers - constructions in policy and media discourses and among students and staff in Europe

In this research, we draw upon data from a large European Research Council project Eurostudents led by Prof Rachel Brooks in constructions of students were analysed in 6 European countries (England, Ireland, Denmark, Spain, Poland and Germany). The project analysed constructions of students in policy documents, among policy makers, in key newspapers, by higher education institutions, and among students themselves (based on focus groups). Here we focus on one particular common construction of students – students as future workers. The discourse of human capital, which positions HE students as future workers and as a key economic resource, has been evident in various national and European policies introduced over the past two decades (Brooks, 2021; Keeling, 2006). Nevertheless, broader and more nuanced cross-country comparative insights are yet to be made. In particular, the use of alternative contesting discourses by students and staff, which question human capital norms, have remained largely obscured. This research has shown how the construction of students as future workers is important to all the social actors involved in our study. Within policy and, to a lesser extent, the media, future workers were understood in terms of human capital – and this was common across all six countries in our sample. This discourse was strongest in England, Ireland, Denmark and Poland – and weakest in Spain and Germany. Nevertheless, students mostly did not enact the prescriptions of human capital discourse. They did not position themselves as rational choice-makers seeking higher earnings, nor did they see their wider collective role as a national economic resource. Instead, they understood themselves as future workers in an almost procedural and formal way, viewing work and employment as a ‘natural’ next stage of their lives. Moreover, human capital discourse was critiqued by students for overpromising – offering prospects without any guarantee that they would be realised. Labour market realities were perceived, instead, in terms of an increasingly congested positional competition (Brown, 2013) based on credentials. Such perceptions were strongest in countries which have less occupationally and educationally specialised graduate labour markets (England and Ireland) or that have experienced devastating effects of economic crisis on youth employment (Spain). We have also shown how both students and staff offered substantial critiques of an understanding of ‘future workers’ grounded in ideas associated with human capital. These critiques – underpinned by the concepts of vocation and Bildung – were evident in many narratives from staff and students, across all six countries. They were particularly marked, however, in Germany and Denmark due to specific deeply rooted cultural traditions about education in these countries.