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A key policy ambition for degree apprenticeships is to offer an alternative route to a degree for disadvantaged young people, and in doing so facilitate widening participation in higher education. However, degree apprenticeships in England are poorly understood and this is reflected in their policy conceptualisation and implementation in practice. Utilising a framework combining Varieties of Capitalism and Bourdieusian scholarships, this thesis seeks to analyse this issue by highlighting the structures and mechanisms at play at macro, meso and micro levels. In this way I draw attention to the conflicting key stakeholder perceptions, whilst also emphasising a general desire for degree apprenticeships to become a successful part of the education landscape. I took a mixed methods approach that included interviewing degree apprentices as well as other key stakeholders, therefore providing a multi-stakeholder understanding of the degree apprenticeship landscape. My practitioner experiences in education with young people, brought a nuanced understanding of the context and added to the wealth of observations from interviewees. My findings indicate that the wider socio-economic landscape limits accessibility for young people, therefore negatively impacting the potential for degree apprenticeships to facilitate widening participation in higher education. It is clear that the structural and class inequalities underlying the current landscape need to be addressed in order for degree apprenticeships to provide a real alternative for the young school or college leaver from low socio-economic backgrounds. Changes in policy and practice are necessary for this to be achieved. This thesis opens up a discursive space for these changes to begin.

This is a phenomenological study of privileged education and the role it plays in social reproduction within the context of an elite international school. The project is based on interviews with sixteen adolescents completing the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. A qualitative study through narrative methods enables the participants to offer a portrait of their perspectives on the habitus of their school in Central Europe. The research examines social group-making in this transnational setting to explore global class hierarchies. Current political and historical dynamics can be viewed within this space in an interdisciplinary manner to demonstrate how this impacts the social relations of these students. These global flows will be considered within the narratives that the participants offer on their class groupings in order to consider the international school as a space for cultural exchange. There is complexity to the social class making that is taking place there, and this study aims to explore this social organisation to better recognise how international schools establish students as a 'global elite'. This research will focus on this social reality of the under-researched domain of international education by allowing students to express their stories about how they conceive of their privileged schooling.

In its traditional role, the university was perceived as a hub for knowledge-creation, teaching, and research. Higher education was afforded primarily by the elite and seen as a means of transmitting culture. The liberal arts, in particular, were seen to add cultural, social, and intellectual capital to graduates. Over time, and specifically with the advent of the Human Capital Theory, workers' employability came to be seen as the focus of higher education. Disciplinary and vocational knowledge took precedence as employability became a primary reason for enrolling in higher education. Now, graduate employability is seen to be of utmost importance as careers become non-linear and technology makes several entry-level jobs redundant. This is a comparative case study of employability at two liberal arts institutions in the United Arab Emirates. This study aims to explore how employability is conceived, embedded, and enacted by the respective administrative offices and the leadership, faculty, students, and alumni of the civil and computer engineering programmes at each institution. It intends to portray a cohesive picture of employability, while offering insights into comparisons and contrasts where possible. In particular, the liberal arts focus at both institutions adds a unique layer of analysis to this study, since science- and technology-based disciplines are typically regarded as vocational subjects, unlike the liberal arts. Findings suggest that both institutions conceptualised employability differently, one with a traditional notion and the other with a more contemporary view. The liberal arts were seen to offer immense potential in aligning graduate identities with careers of the future. However, the meaning and relation of a liberal arts philosophy to science- and technology-based disciplines was unclear to some key stakeholders. Finally, structural forces in the local labour market, non-linear careers, economic and cultural factors, and hiring models specific to this region were found to significantly impact graduate employability at the two institutions in question.

During the past several decades, higher education has undergone profound changes through internationalization, privatization, and marketization. Since many universities are now global entities operating in the style of New Public Management (NPM), there is a need to explore how this impacts the experiences of academic life. International Branch Campuses (IBCs) are interesting and complex sites because they represent various dimensions of marketization in both organizational structure and management. This study focuses on IBCs specifically those that are entered into private equity/commercial infrastructure partnerships. The intended aim of the research is to provide insight into how academics perceive the effects of marketization on academic life, professional autonomy, and institutional practice. The primary academic literature is focused on the wide-scale implications of the marketization of higher education. Therefore, this study examines the theoretical literature at the micro-levels of institutional practice and professional experience. Using a critical realism paradigm, the research approach is dynamic, drawing on both grounded theory and multiple case studies. Instruments of data collection include semi-structured interviews and participant reflective responses, which are examined using a critical thematic analysis approach. The analysis suggests that the organizational qualities of a commercially partnered IBC may foster an environment where the effects of marketization and NPM are more pronounced, and critical and creative practices are less likely to be encouraged due to curriculum standardization, deprofessionalization, and efforts to involve faculty in sales and retail practices. As a result, the study recommends long-term investment in critical and creative teaching and more transparency through the reporting and publication of institutional and financial data.