'Seize that chance!' Leaving home and transitions to higher education

Patiniotis, Jackie; Holdsworth, Clare

Abstract

This paper interrogates assumptions surrounding the practices of leaving home and going to higher education in England and Wales. As more students from non-traditional backgrounds are encouraged to go to university, this is leading to greater diversity in students’ experiences of university life, and one of the key aspects of this is that more students are choosing to stay at home for the duration of their studies. This paper explores how and why students make the decision to stay at home. While recognising the financial advantages of living at home we argue that the decision cannot be reduced to economic expediency, but reflects young people's access to legitimate cultural capital and family and peer endorsement of leaving home as an expected process and outcome of going to university.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jan 23, 2007
• Publication Date: 2005
• Deposit Date: Aug 24, 2023
• Journal: Journal of Youth Studies
• Print ISSN: 1367-6261
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-9680
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 1
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260500063710