ABSTRACT
In this chapter I will explore the concept of transition in relation to higher education (HE), drawing on a research project funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation about ‘failed transition’ amongst young working-class people who have ‘dropped out’ of university. I will show that a xed concept of transition certainly informs policy and practice in HE, and that this concept is not simply inadequate, but also causes signicant problems for students. Where notions of transition are inexible and obdurate, failure follows soon behind for many young people. A ‘failed transition’ to HE is a mirror of multiple ‘failed’ transitions in the lives of working-class learners: anticipated failures, because of their supposed ‘lack’ of aspirations and ability, and predetermined failures because of the rigidly hierarchical education system. However, moving towards a looser denition of transition does not necessarily solve the problem. The research on ‘drop out’ problematises even the most exible accounts of transition discussed in the literature and calls into question the usefulness of the concept of transition itself. My chapter will attempt to address the core questions of identity, structure and agency, which have engaged those of us involved in this debate, but will end by posing a new one. What happens when we recognise change as a permanent state of being, rather than a periodic occurrence; when ux replaces pathway as our image of life and learning?
