Learner Profile 35
Dr Jim Tate, Warehouse labourer to PhD
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Jim left school without any qualifications of any kind. His background is almost stereotypically working class, given that his father was a dustman and his mother was an office cleaner. Jim's first full-time job was labouring in a timber merchant's and it paid 27 quid per week. The money was paid in cash in a brown envelope.
A Chance Remark
It was one evening in 1988 in a pub in Tottenham, North London, that Jim was sitting with a friend bemoaning the latest in a long line of indistinguishable dead-end jobs. In the ten years since he had left school he had been a warehouse labourer, delivery van driver, fork lift operator, and suchlike, none of which were his idea of a worthwhile life. As he sat bemoaning, the friend, whose name was Helen, interupted the flow of discontent by asking with an excusable hint of exasperation: "Well, what would you do if you could do anything?"
This was an easy question to answer and he said: "I would study philosophy full-time."
Then she asked him a supplementary question. This question changed the direction of his life. The question was: "Well, why don't you then?"
It was a good question. "Well, why don't I then?" It was a very good question. He had no wife, children, or other commitments. He was on a low wage, doing unskilled work. He had nothing much to lose and something of value to gain. And, when he enquired at the local library, it turned out that they taught full-time philosophy degrees at Middlesex Polytechnic which was just a bus ride down the road.
What was the thing of value that he would gain if he could somehow become a student? What was the motivation to study in HE? Was he thinking of a glittering new career? No, it wasn't that. Was he thinking of the big money he could earn as a graduate? No, it wasn't that. Was he thinking of the glorious self-realisation of his untapped potential? No, it wasn't that, either. It was a much simpler ambition. It was that a three year degree course would mean spending three years away from the warehouse. Three years of not having to drag himself to a job he hated every day. Three years of not spending the whole day, every day, looking at his watch crawl with infinitisimal speed from 8.30am clocking on time to 5pm clocking off time. Three years relief from the mind-numbing, soul-destroying, waste of life that was warehouse work. Even if he had to return to warehouse work afterwards, at least there would be three years of his life that wouldn't have been wasted.
Not a very high-minded motivation, perhaps, but heartfelt. Of course, he had no idea whether he could in fact last three years at degree level since he had no idea what the academic standards of degree level study were like. But if, and it was a big if, he could manage to pass each years exams and not get thrown out, it would mean three whole years free of the warehouse. Certainly worth a try.
The philosophy department at Middlesex didn't seem worried by his lack of qualifications and accepted him on the strength of his interview. In September 1989 Jim started as a first year undergraduate student in philosophy at Middlesex Ploytechnic.
Unexpected Developments
It was an afternoon in 1992 that Jim and his friend Jeni searched the list of names cellotaped up on the walls of what had by now become Middlesex University, looking for his name amongst the final year students results. It wasn't there. The list was alphabetical, so there was no chance of missing it. But it wasn't there. Then Brian, a student on the same course as Jim, congratulated him. This seemed odd, until Brian explained that Jim's name was on the list on the wall in the next room. Why was his name on a separate list in the next room where he couldn't find it instead of being included in the main room with everyone else? It was because they kept a separate list of those students who had been awarded First Class degrees.
Getting a first class degree made a difference. Jim had applied for a British Academy grant in order to study for a Master of Arts at the University of Kent. There would be very little chance of getting finance without a first class Bachelor of Arts degree. But he got lucky. He got the grant. He went to Kent. Three years away from the warehouse became four years.
An Accidental Career
1993 raised a new question: what does a person do with two philosophy degrees? One answer is: teach. An attractive idea, but was it a realistic option? Not without a PhD, that was for sure. Unfortunately, there was no money for PhD study. But the University of Dundee was advertising the chance to study for a two-year part-time Master of Philosophy degree financed by a teaching role at the university. Jim didn't need another Masters degree but the position would provide an opportunity to try his hand at teaching philosophy to see if he was any good at it and, consequently, to decide whether it was worthwhile attempting a PhD in pursuit of a lectureship. And what's wrong with having two Masters Degrees anyway?
He applied. Got short-listed for an interview. They offered the position to someone else. That person turned it down. Jim was the runner-up. He got lucky. He went to Dundee.
In the summer of 1995 the University of Keele staged a repeat performance. The two years at Dundee had gone well, the teaching had been successful, and when Keele advertised a similar offer of study financed by teaching, this time for a PhD, Jim naturally applied. There were fourteen people on a short-list for three positions. Jim came fourth. One of the three people they offered it to turned it down. Jim was the runner-up. He got lucky. He went to Keele.
While at Keele Jim also worked as an assistant warden in the student Halls of Residence and taught philosophy with the Open University, on top of teaching at Keele and his own PhD studies (not to mention working in a video rental store on the side). Multi-tasking has its stresses and strains but it still has warehouse work beat hands down. Unexpectedly, the student welfare and discipline role in Halls of Residence opened up another avenue of his unlikely and fortuitous career path and by the time Jim had been awarded his doctorate he had also been employed for six months as the Residential Manager of Student Support during his former boss' maternity leave.
All of which took another unexpected turn in the autumn of 2000 when he became involved in widening participation as a part of what later became Aimhigher Southwest, first at the University of Exeter and subsequently at the University of the West of England, and all of which means that Jim has now (in 2007) spent over seventeen years in Higher Education in one capacity or another. This is actually six years longer than the eleven years he spent as an unskilled labourer.
So one day someone is asking you, as a chance remark, "Well, why don't you then?" and before you know what's happening you're a graduate of four different universities, you've been a philosophy tutor at four different universities, a student support manager at one, and a widening participation practitioner at two more.
What's going to happen next is anybody's guess.
A Few Thoughts
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Widening participation students are all individually different and have diverse motivations for studying at HE. Ultimately, every person's experience of HE is irreducibly personal.
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School academic performance is not necessarily an accurate guide to academic performance in HE, especially for mature students.
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Motivations, expectations, and aspirations can all change and develop over time whilst someone is actually in Higher Education. Issues relating to aspiration do not end when a person enters HE.
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Diverse personal circumstances mean that some people have more freedom to study than others. This may be even more relevant to issues of retention and further progression than it is to initial entry.
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Widening participation is about progression to and through HE. University culture will need to adapt not only to larger numbers of working class students, but also to larger numbers of working class postgraduates and teaching staff.
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Dumb luck plays its role, too.
Contact Details
Jim Tate, University of the West of England,
Coldharbour Lane,
Bristol BS16 1QY
Telephone 0117 328 1383
Email James.Tate@uwe.ac.uk
Jim is currently responsible for the following websites
Aimhigher Southwest Practitioners
Forum for Access and Continuing Education
Leap into Health Summer School
