Degrees of value: Cultivating privilege at an elite university
- Dr Fiona Gogescu, LSE
This study examines how students at the London School of Economics (LSE) perceive the value of their university degree. The research employs mixed methods, combining a survey of second- and third- year undergraduates with follow-up in-depth interviews. The survey captured students’ perceived educational gains, priorities during university, as well as beliefs about factors influencing success at university and in the labour market. Students with different profiles — defined by their understandings of success—were selected for in-depth interviews to explore how they negotiated between competing priorities. Findings show how under perceived conditions of social congestion (Brown, 2013), students navigate elite higher education as a site for cultivating multiple forms of graduate capital (Tomlinson, 2017) so as to gain positional advantages over other graduates.
Booking
There’s no need to register if you’re attending in-person.
Event Notes
Please find the General Privacy Policy of UCL, one of our partner universities, here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/legal-services/privacy/general-privacy-notice.
Share this event
Fiona joined the Department of Social Policy as an LSE Fellow after completing her PhD in the same department. Her research focuses on how educational inequalities are perpetuated, legitimised, and accepted by different social groups.
Prior to embarking on her PhD journey, Fiona worked as a Researcher in the Policy Research Centre at NatCen Social Research. By working on policy evaluations involving a diverse range of research methods, she gained experience in qualitative and mixed- methods work. Fiona is also the co-founder of the , an international forum of early stage researchers.