Inhabiting and researching the spaces of higher education

When I arrived in the UK 15 years ago, my research experience had thus far concentrated on the field of employment and social justice, which I had studied and researched in France, Ireland and Italy. Joining the Institute for Policy Studies in Education (IPSE) at London Metropolitan University (my first academic position in the UK) brought about all sorts of challenges. Not only had I moved to a new institution, I had also changed country and research field as my primary focus shifted from employment to education. My first appointment was as a Research Assistant to a well-known higher education researcher, Carole Leathwood (now Professor emerita), and I was primarily involved in the longitudinal study of a cohort of undergraduates who, at the time of my appointment, were about to graduate. So, ironically, students’ point of departure from higher education became my point of entry into the field as a researcher.