Too comfortable? Young people, social capital development and the FHE institutional habitus.

Drawing upon a case-study of the students and teaching staff of an Advanced Vocational Certificate of Education (AVCE) in Travel and Tourism, this paper examines the effects of the institutional habitus of a Further and Higher Education (FHE) college upon the higher education choices of a group of ethnically-mixed, working-class young people. The study focuses upon two of the three aspects of the institutional habitus: the expressive order (teacher-student relations) and educational status (curriculum offerings and reputation). Evidence indicated that both aspects exerted a distinct 'college-effect' upon the students' decision-making. Among staff, however, there was a strong degree of ambivalence regarding the effects of supportive teacher-student relations on the students' educational development and choice-making. This ambivalence relates, in turn, to staff perceptions of distinct FE and H.E teaching and learning cultures within the College - or, in effect, a belief that there is not one institutional habitus but two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]