"When does hot become cold": Why we should be disrupting narrow and exclusive discourses of success in higher education

Student success is a prominent focus across contemporary higher education policy with the success of courses and programs resting on dominant framings. In this paper I argue that students’ experiences of success are reduced through limited quantitative measures and associated nomenclature accordingly, which invisibilise the many ‘other’ important forms of success. Experiences of success are subjective and successful educational outcomes are as varied and diverse as the students who achieve them. The dominant discourse of success, however, reproduces narrowed forms of knowledge and limiting views of the ‘ideal’ student in higher education. Furthermore, normalising statistical practices which objectify and strip away the capacity to gain a fuller picture of student success also serves to privilege limited ‘valued’ knowledges. This paper details the findings of a study designed to elicit the perceptions of success from students seeking to enter higher education through an enabling pathway. Participants rejected the official measurements of success and explored success through subjective and emotional terms. Drawing on the findings of this study, it is recommended that current measures of success in higher education need re-evaluating. More equitable forms of measurement are required to recognise and value the histories and aspirations of all students – to account for the complexity and fluidity of success.