SRHE 2025 Conference
The AES research team will be presenting further findings from the project at the SRHE conference.
Citation: Hensby, A., Adewumi, B. and Kolajo, Y. (2025). Reimagining the independent learner for the massified university: Motivations and constraints in the learning strategies of high-potential widening participation (WP) undergraduates. 2025 SRHE International Research Conference, Nottingham, 2nd - 4th December 2025.
Reimagining the independent learner for the massified university: Motivations and constraints in the learning strategies of high-potential widening participation (WP) undergraduates
Alexander Hensby, Barbara Adewumi, Yetunde Kolajo, University of Kent
Abstract
This paper critically interrogates ‘independent learning’ as the commonly invoked ‘ideal’ learning strategy for student success in higher education. While the term typically denotes a self-directed and self-motivated learning provision, it can also be seen as upholding certain assumptions and expectations that reflect higher education’s history as the preserve of white, male elites (Leathwood, 2006). But what does efficacious independent learning actually mean in an increasingly massified and employability-driven sector? To what extent does this model privilege certain student profiles and backgrounds above others?
Our research draws on a 3-year qualitative longitudinal study of the motivations and learning strategies of 25 undergraduates, drawing on a sample of academic excellence scholarship awardees from a range of socioeconomic and ethnicity backgrounds. Findings reveal a more nuanced and pragmatic picture of independent learning, while identifying how misapplications of the concept and differential resourcing may contribute to longstanding degree awarding gaps.
SRHE 2024 Conference
Citation: Hensby, A., Adewumi, B. and Kolajo, Y. (2024). Tuition and timesheets: analysing undergraduates’ hidden strategies for negotiating study and employment needs during the ‘cost of learning crisis’. 2024 SRHE International Research Conference, Nottingham 4th - 6th December 2024
Tuition and timesheets: analysing undergraduates’ hidden strategies for negotiating study and employment needs during the ‘cost of learning crisis’
Alexander Hensby, Barbara Adewumi, Yetunde Kolajo, University of Kent
Abstract
This paper uses a longitudinal study of 27 undergraduates at a UK university to trace students’ employment narrative in tandem with their studies. While students have long supplemented their loan income through part-time work, the present ‘cost of learning crisis’ (Hill et al, 2024) has generated urgent questions regarding student support and engagement across the HE sector.
Our research foregrounds complexities of students’ lived experience, with interviews helping unpack the subjective rationality of students’ decision-making (Glaesser and Cooper, 2014). Findings
indicate that students’ strategies represent a form of ‘independent learning’, albeit in a context where university study often competes with employment and employability pressures. Yet while many students’ strategies facilitated academic achievement and graduate-level employment, others were constrained by financial and social capital inequities. Moreover, these students were often acutely aware that employment commitments were directly affecting their academic performance yet felt constrained in their capacity to address this imbalance.