What does ‘local’ mean? Place as contested and constitutive for the HE in FE student. Holly Henderson School of Education, University of Birmingham

Where is local? The county you live in? The city you live in? The street you live on? Your local shops? Your local pub? Local transport? Within driving distance? Within walking distance?

Presentation Outline 1.Why look at HE and place? 1.How I am looking at HE and place 1.HE in FE: Incompatible localities? 1.Drawing boundaries painfully

Why look at place in HE ‘University Centre’ ‘a specific HE room which includes computer facilities and a kitchenette.’ (Dhillon and Bentley 2016, p. 145) ‘Dedicated HE study areas’ – FE College website

How I am looking at HE and place Narratives, subjectivities and temporalities in education (de Certeau 1984; Massey 2005) The ‘local’ as a hierarchy in the stratification of English HE The power-geometries of time-space compression (Massey 1994) The ‘local’ as a euphemism for disadvantage/immobility of students

HE in FE: Incompatible Localities? HE and the logic of marketisation

HE in FE: Incompatible Localities? FE and the logic of streamlining: ‘We will need to move towards fewer, often larger, more resilient and efficient providers.’ (BIS 2015, p. 3)

HE in FE, power-geometries and the language of the ‘local’ ‘I remember some of most painful times as a geographer have been spent unwillingly struggling to think how one could draw a boundary around somewhere like “the East Midlands”.’ (Massey 1993, p. 64) Areas will be asked to take forward reviews according to a national framework, which will help ensure that they are conducted on a broadly consistent basis, reflecting our experience from the early reviews already conducted, including part of Norfolk and Suffolk and in the City of Nottingham. (BIS 2015, p. 3)

References De Certeau, M. (1984). The practice of everyday life. Berkeley, University of California Press. Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. (2015). Reviewing post-16 education and training institutions. London, Crown Copyright. Dhillon, J. K. and J. Bentley (2016). "Governor and course leaders’ reflections on HE in FE: strategic ambition and curriculum practice in two large colleges in England." Research in Post-Compulsory Education 21(1-2): Massey, D. (2012). “Power-geometry and a progressive sense of place”. In Mapping the futures: local cultures, global change. Eds. J. Bird, B. Curtis, T. Putnam and L. Tickner. London, Routledge: Massey, D. (2013). Space, place and gender. Cambridge, Polity Press