Greater expectations of graduate futures? A comparative analysis of the views of the last generation of lower-fees undergraduates and the first generation of higher-fees undergraduates at two English universities.

Student finance in UK higher education (HE) has been radically reformed over the past twenty years and the changes in student finance policies have been the focus for a growing body of education research (see for example, Bowl and Hughes, 2014; Bachan, 2014; Wakeling and Jefferies, 2013; Wilkins et al., 2012; Dearden et al., 2011; Moore et al., 2011; McCaig, 2010; Callender and Jackson, 2008). The majority of these existing studies, however, focus on the impact of differing tuition fee levels on students’ enrolment behaviour and the beginning of students’ HE careers. There is little research that has investigated how the most recent increase in tuition fees and changes to student loans, under the 2012 student finance system, have affected the views of graduands (university students who are about to graduate) and their approaches toward their graduate futures. This scoping study has been developed to start to address this gap in knowledge and understanding. In 2014, prior to the SRHE research award, the research team produced a unique qualitative baseline of the views of a sample of undergraduate students who were graduating in the summer of 2014. These graduands were part of the last cohort of students to have paid lower tuition fees and would therefore be graduating with less student debt. This follow-up study, funded by the SRHE, sought to generate new data in order to be able to compare the views, ambitions and experience of a sample of 2014 graduands with a sample of 2015 graduands.