Studenthood and identification: higher education as a liminal transitional space

What does it mean to be a student in a period of mass higher education? A growing number of researchers in post-compulsory education and training have explored questions of identity as a significant dimension of the learning experience (Tedder and Biesta 2009; Merrill 2009). This paper provides a conceptual discussion of studenthood as a way of understanding the ways in which student identities are related to participation and retention. Studenthood refers here to the variety of different ways in which registering for an education programme is implicated in people’s sense of who they are.