University of Oldenburg, Emden/Leer University of Applied Sciences, Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Delmenhorst (HWK)

Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)

2020-2023

• Project description and objectives
• Research questions and research interest

Educational trajectories of "non-traditional students" have moved to the centre of the education policy debate against the backdrop of lifelong learning and the current trend towards opening up higher education and are therefore also highly relevant for empirical higher education research. Due to the growing permeability between vocational and higher education, the trend towards lifelong learning and broader biographical development opportunities, the proportion of people who have gained access to higher education through a vocational qualification continues to increase. The student body is thus also becoming increasingly heterogeneous in terms of access to higher education. In line with Dahm et al. (2013), we understand non-traditional students here as "students with academic appointments who do not have a school-leaving qualification but have taken up their studies via special higher education regulations" (ibid., p. 387). One way of gaining access to higher education is to take an examination to obtain a subject-related higher education entrance qualification following prior academic appointment (Z examination).

These developments lead to pluralistic biographical organisation and development options: For example, a degree programme can still be taken up at a supposedly late point in a person's life, which ideally meets the postulate of lifelong learning. As a former teacher training college, the Carl von Ossietzky University has a long tradition as an open university whose educational programmes are intended to benefit a broad and heterogeneous target group: in some cases, over 10% of students have been granted admission via a Z examination.

Although knowledge about this group is of crucial importance for higher education practice and policy, there have only been a few studies to date that empirically analyse these educational and career paths from a holistic biographical perspective. What has not yet been researched are the long-term consequences of the supposedly late decision to study for a degree on further academic appointments and careers, which biographical developments occur after graduation and how these can be justified biographically.

The research project focuses on the following aspects:

1. Gaining a broader understanding of the target group and their motivation for studying (taking the Z exam),
2. Generating insights into the influence of academic socialisation during studies and the degree achieved on subsequent academic appointments,
3. Analysing the biographical scope for action taken by the interviewees after graduation and the structural characteristics on which these are dependent.

Building on the results of a quantitative preliminary study (N = 6205) that has already been carried out, preliminary types that were explored using a latent class analysis will be investigated and deepened. The aim is to reconstruct the educational and occupational biographies of this case group through an objective hermeneutic interpretation of autobiographical impromptu narratives, which are elicited through narrative interviews. In this way, life-historical processes can be depicted in their temporal boundedness as well as in their formation of meaning and context.