Many of the daughters, indicated a level of denial in order to cope with the level of tuition fee debt. Samantha has accrued the highest level of debt of all the daughters during her undergraduate study:
‘I just don’t even think about it, which is probably like a lot of people […] I know I owe the bank this much money or I owe my Mum this much money, but I don’t feel like I owe the student loan […] I feel no pressure to pay them because I don’t feel like my education has given me enough to stand on yet and I don’t think that’s my fault’. [Samantha, daughter]
Samantha was not in a position to fund her education without financial support through the tuition fee scheme and further loans for day-to-day living. Samantha’s current unpaid internship means there is little possibility of her beginning to repay her loan. Narratives from the daughters indicated a commonly shared viewpoint, that the loan becomes real only at the point of repayment, by which time the debt and the interest has already accrued (Cooper, 2013). Helena’s (daughter) comment is a further example of the apathy that surrounds the repayment of the debt: ‘If you want to go badly enough you’ll just take on the loan, it’ll just take longer to pay off’. [Helena, daughter]
Another daughter, Deborah, explains the pressure of coping with high overheads:
‘I’m only just coming out of my overdraft now and that’s something you really feel hanging over you, knowing the bank could ask for it back at
any moment and like always feeling like you are in debt’. [Deborah, daughter]
Bradley and Ingram (2012: 51) explore how the rhetoric of ‘free at the point of delivery’ has provided open access to university, without consideration of the burden of the debt post-study. As postgraduates, neither Samantha nor Deborah are working in the areas that they studied, with a high level of debt and currently, without work satisfaction.
It is noteworthy that with the exception of Rosanne, discussion about attending university with the daughters did not revolve around motivations of education such as opportunity, self worth or career advancement. However, Rosanne did interweave her narrative with concerns about debt repayment:
‘I have to say I was lucky because I was the last year when it was only, like £1,000, so as long as I stay in work I will be able to pay that off within 10-15 years, then poor old everyone else is going to be paying for the rest of their lives […] I think it will be a barrier […] You have to do the balance sheet before you go’. [Rosanne, daughter]
All interviewees, with the exception of the narratives shown earlier from Fran and Francesca, raised some worry over high fees and the possible academic and vocational divisions that could occur based on familial income, rather than individual merit. This has highlighted class-based, income-derived narratives that were both implicitly and explicitly expressed around the payment of fees.
As well as recognising the extent to which mothers become involved in their daughters’ higher education, it is important to explore if any of the mothers were not able or did not wish to engage in supporting their daughters. Tara is the only mother in the study who was personally unable to fund her daughter Taruh through university. As a single, unwaged person in part-time Masters study, Tara was struggling to pay for her own study as well as her daughter’s
entry to university. Tara frequently referred to her childhood habitus and working class values, which included being self-sufficient and without debt:
‘You were always told once you leave school you would work and contribute to the house […] I don’t have any debts. I’ve made it so I don’t have any debts except the student loan […] I don’t want other people to be supporting me, I want to be supporting myself’. [Tara, mother]
Tara’s desire to be financially independent is instilled in her daughter, who also insisted on being self-sufficient before and during her university years:
‘I’ve worked the whole time. I’ve been working since I was 15. I’ve always had a job’. [Taruh, daughter]
Despite being unable to offer Taruh any direct form of financial help, Tara used her social capital to gain waitressing work for them both through contacts at her university. Tara was not in a position of choice to offer financial help to Taruh. Debbie, Rose and Jess discussed the understanding and perception of choice and all included a level of social commentary in their replies:
‘Certainly academically she had a much better basic education than I did to start with and her options have been better than mine. I think socially sometimes it’s harder for her than it was for me and the expectation if you have children that you still continue to work’. [Debbie, mother]
‘I think she’ll find it hard actually, compared job wise, I think they find it hard. I feel sorry for the children now. Education wise I think they’re lucky with the opportunities like university and things like that, so education wise I think they’re lucky. But going out into the world I don’t think they are very lucky’. [Jess, mother]
‘Rose – I think I have always thought that my generation was a very privileged one, because we had more choices, but we didn’t have some of the pressures and constraints that I think now the current generation have.
Linda – So are you saying that you think you had more opportunity? Rose – Definitely! Nobody, nobody questioned like, my choice of work part-time, parent part-time, do further study. All the choices that I made I think were just accepted, y’know by my family, by my partner, by my friends. There was a kind of ... not typical, but a very accepted way of acting, whereas I think now people’s choices are more questioned and justified. If you work full-time you feel guilty because you are compromising your parenting, if you parent full-time, you are judged because you’re not maximising your career potential and I think there are a lot more challenges now, perhaps’. [Rose, mother]
Rose very succinctly analyses the tension for women justifying work, career potential and parenting. Despite contestations that women now have equality and opportunity, these women argue that their daughters will continue to face increasing challenges. Kathy agreed with these statements, but offered an explanation:
‘I don’t think they’ve had better academic opportunities, I think they’ve made more of it and maybe that’s because, erm, we’ve encouraged it more’. [Kathy, mother]
Kathy places maternal encouragement at the heart of choice and aspiration. Although timidly expressed by Kathy, her point is extremely important. Maternal support has played a significant role in daughters’ opportunities, visions and choices. Mothers’ capital, whether economic, cultural, social or emotional, is a powerful indicator of advantage within the education process. I would argue that based on the findings outlined in this chapter, mother’s influence, both inferred and unequivocal, adds appreciably to the weight of ownership and possession of capital in the decision-making process around higher education.
5.8 Conclusion
This chapter has explored different experiences and personal principles associated with accessing higher education. Examples of motivation and influence, expectation and active participation, enthusiasm and ambition were cited, countered with stories of a lack of educational support, the want or need to earn money and in some cases, a simple choice to work or have children instead. The change in access to university from an elite to a mass higher education system has provided participation opportunities for all of the daughters in this research, in many cases beyond that of their mothers. All daughter participants, with the exception of two, aspired to undergraduate study. The two daughters not in university made a conscious and informed choice not to attend.
The emergent picture from the mothers is one of having had options, to work or study with both being seen as entirely acceptable options, particularly in an era where jobs were freely available. The notion of choice remains contentious, as I have highlighted a very different spectrum of situations from May who was expected to go to university, to Jess, who had no notion of studying at university whatsoever. I would argue that the tuition fee increase means that this situation remains similar for women in low-income families. The mothers in this sample all unconditionally supported their daughters to attend university and with the exception of one daughter, Taruh, provided partial or full financial support through the undergraduate process. Mothers Jess and Rose support the view that women have more opportunity now, yet women’s decisions are more judged than ever.
The daughters indicate that undergraduate study is the normal route straight from school. University transition straight from A-levels has become the conventional pattern and the two daughters who have not gone to university are seen as breaking the trend. This change in educational norms contrasts with the mothers’ narratives, where progression straight into the workplace was seen as an unquestioned option, taken by many of the women. The increasing shortfall in jobs for applicants is suggested as fuelling the need for
students to attend university to provide further education and skills to give them a competitive edge in the job market. The mothers articulated that jobs were plentiful when they left school, negating the need for qualifications for clerical or administrative positions.
Despite discussion that the repayment scheme opens up university attendance to a wider audience, choice to attend university only remains available to those who are willing to sustain financial debt in early adulthood. I have highlighted several cases where families have funded the entire higher educational process, alleviating their daughters of all debt. In Chapter Six I suggest this is how mothers ‘play the game’. The mothers who attended university in previous years were all fully funded through their study and examples have been provided in Chapter Four of how this system gave students a ‘good start in life’, with the financial pressure being on the state rather than the family. This supplements and develops Reay’s (1998b) research that mothers undertake the same strategies in the primary sector and I have been able to present findings that confirms that women are continuing these tactics for their daughters into the tertiary sector. Furthermore, I consider how those with cultural capital are able to use their financial knowledge to profit from the investment of the student loan. Tara was unable to financially support her daughter Taruh through university, but used her social capital to help her find casual work opportunities.
The shift of the University from a place of elitism to mass learning has allowed more women to consider careers that would previously have been the domain of men. However, many women feel that a degree is now necessary to get onto the job ladder. Mothers’ recollections of their opportunities at school suggest positive improvements through changing social policies and attitudes, as young women say their educational opportunities have been equal to that of their male peers. Yet some of the mothers feel their daughters have less opportunity than they did, as women are having to justify every aspect of their lives based on their gender, including career, personal and parenting choices.
Importantly, mothers’ involvement suggests that the daughters are now living in a period of extended adolescence. The themes of class and capital remain important in the discussions of whether mothers’ aspirations coincide with their daughters’ visions of the future and whether this reproduction continues throughout the education process.