‘Wales is my home’: higher education aspirations and student mobilities in Wales

Drawing on qualitative research with a group of prospective university entrants in Wales, this paper examines the relationship between higher education aspirations and young people's emotional connections with home during the transition to university. The data demonstrate that decisions about where to study were shaped by conflicting ambitions; namely the desire to encounter both different and familiar places during a move away from the parental home. This paper contends that a number of students were able to reconcile these demands and thus formulate ‘suitable’ aspirations by migrating within Wales.