’Always knowing’ and ‘never being sure’: familial and institutional habituses and higher education choice

The last 25 years have seen a transition from an ‘elite’ to a ‘mass’ system of higher education. This expansion fuelled by mature as well as younger students has made the field of higher education far more complex and unstable than it was even ten years ago. This paper attempts, through the case studies of a group of ten higher education applicants, to develop a preliminary theoretical analysis of the processes of contemporary higher education choice which works both with the growing diversity of the client group and the continuing inequalities in access. It is argued that intersections of gender, ‘race’ and social class are key to understanding students’ experiences of higher education choice. Higher education policy, in widening access, could be seen to be promoting social justice. However, it is argued that the experience of these ten students points to a more complex, less optimistic conclusion.