ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 has indicated that although there is now an abundance of evidence concerning the recent restructuring of higher education in Britain, there is little consensus about the significance or likely effects of these changes, especially as far as the ‘clients’ of HE institutions are concerned. We have also noted a tendency in some research on higher education for theorisation to run ahead of evidence – particularly evidence about the subjectivities of those students who are already within higher education or are contemplating entering it (for example, Margison 1997). Although these deficiencies are to some extent now being remedied in the case of research which explores the subjective rationalities of young people applying to higher education (Ahier 2001; Ball et al. 2002), there is still remarkably little evidence about students already ‘in the system’.
