Description
Today’s young people have faced successive waves of crisis – the Great Recession, the Climate Crisis, and the Covid-19 pandemic – which have had a significant impact upon their political priorities, and left many young people disillusioned with mainstream electoral politics (Sloam and Henn 2019). At the same time, we have also witnessed a surge in youth protest on a number of key issues – from the Climate Strikes, to Black Lives Matter, to campaigns against university tuition fees or for stricter gun controls (Fisher and Nasrin 2021; Della Volpe 2022; Sloam et al. 2022). Youth politics is increasingly defined by socially liberal values, driven by shared identities, and focussed on issues that hold meaning for young people’s everyday lives (O’Loughlin and Sloam 2022). And this is particularly the case for students and young people with high levels of educational attainment (Sloam and Henn 2019).It is well known that higher education can play a key role in shaping students’ values and fostering youth participation in democracy. However, there is very little research looking, from a bottom-up perspective, at how students’ values and priorities might shape the civic character of those institutions. This paper aims to fill this gap and – at the same time – examine how placements can engage with these themes, to build efficacy and support democratic participation, and also to overcome structural barriers to participation amongst students from ethnic minority backgrounds.
This paper begins by investigating the existing literature on youth politics and the influence education has upon values and participation, as well as studies that look at the role higher education can play in promoting youth participation in democracy. The civic and democratic function of universities and colleges has often been defined – however, well meaning – by the leaders of those institutions. The paper examines this subject from the perspective of young people and students. It explores how the changing values and priorities of Generation Z have influenced students’ priorities for the democratic role of higher education. Here, it draws upon the results of a representative survey of university students and high-school students in the UK.
Building on the results of the survey, the analysis looks at how political placements can help us understand the causal processes through which youth participation may take place. The paper provides evidence from interviews with students participating in an elective module, ‘Politics in Action’, at Royal Holloway (University of London). It also presents evidence from a nested intervention for ethnic minority students on the same module – a parliamentary scheme established to address the prevailing lack of diversity in Parliament and open new pathways into political life. The results highlight the need to embed youth priority issues, such as climate change and anti-racism, in the curriculum and broader university culture, to enhance students' learning experiences and their sense of agency regarding civic and political participation.
Regarding placement modules, the findings emphasize the huge potential of these initiatives for encouraging interested but disengaged ‘standby citizens’, to become politically active. The results from the ethnic minority placement initiative demonstrate the value of considering identity e.g., gender and ethnicity, and intersectionality more generally, when promoting democratic engagement in higher education.
The fundamental point is that, if universities want their (young) students – who are drawn towards issue-based forms of participation – to engage in democracy, they need to understand their priorities and values. They also need to understand the mechanisms through which students become engaged (in an often-hostile political climate) and may overcome structural barriers to participation.
| Period | 5 Sept 2025 |
|---|---|
| Held at | Political Studies Association (teaching and learning conference) |
| Degree of Recognition | National |