‘A second chance at learning but it’s not quite higher education’: experience of a foundation degree

This paper reports on the findings of a recent small scale study into the experiences of mature students of a foundation degree (FD) in health and social care. This was an exploratory study that evaluated one particular FD health and social care programme in order to gain an insight into some of the issues involved in delivering higher education through further education settings, and how mature students ‘make sense’ of themselves as learners on FD programmes. This paper examines the responses of the student interviews which depict them as making sense of themselves as ‘second chance learners’ on an educational programme that is ‘not quite higher education’. Discussion of these themes in terms of Bourdieu’s notions of habitus, field and capital will be offered alongside Weick’s model of sensemaking.