CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Stöber, Henriette |
|---|---|
| Title | Study/Life Balance - A Comparative Study on National Level Polices Aiding Student Parents to Succeed in European Higher Education |
| Summary | Abstract Student parents represent a small but not insignificant share of the overall student body. The number of otherwise perfectly qualified potential students not accessing tertiary education due to national level policies that restrict the support they would need for striking a balance between studies and family life, can only be based on an educated guess. It is argued that this loss of bright minds to parenthood may well be identified as a unique form of brain drain and that debates about policies for widening access and work/life balance should explicitly include students with dependants as one of the marginalised target groups. The situation of student parents in the nations scrutinized for this project, namely Germany, Sweden and the UK, is diverse. Good practise policy approaches in aiding them to succeed in tertiary education can be found in all of them, yet a directly transferrable ‘one-siz e-fits-all 19; approach cannot be identified. This is due to path-dependent contexts shaping national level policy. The project concludes that nevertheless there is potential for policy transfer when considering good practise for study/life balance in the context of European level interests and existing EU and multilateral programs in the areas of tertiary education and social policy. It is suggested that by explicitly including the group of student parents into the definition of the non-traditional student in EU and multilateral initiatives, their situation could be monitored and good practise could be derived as the base to foster transfer of ideas and values: that indeed, student parents are a marginalised group in tertiary education which should be targeted by policies aiming at accessibility, work/life and ultimately study/life balance. |
| Supervisor | Agnes Batory & Nicole Lindstrom |
| Department | Public Policy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/stoeber_henriette.pdf |
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