‘Day students’ in Higher Education: widening access students and successful transitions to university life

摘要

This article explores the experiences of widening access students at two prestigiousudUniversities in Scotland. It is based on interview data collected from a small sample of youngudand mature students who had all attended a widening access course prior to coming toudUniversity. The analysis centres on the students’ construction of themselves as ‘dayudstudents’, who live at home and combine studying with commitments to family or to paidudemployment. While they see being day students as a pragmatic response to their financial andudmaterial circumstances, it is argued that this disadvantages the students within the Universityudsystem both through their limited ability to participate in the wider social aspects of studentudlife and through their exclusion from networks through which important informationudcirculates.