This compelling and stimulating book explores the gendered social history of students in modern Britain.

From the privileged youth of Brideshead Revisited, to the scruffs at ‘Scumbag University’ in The Young Ones, representations of the university undergraduate have been decidedly male. But since the 1970s the proportion of women students in universities in the UK has continued to rise so that female undergraduates now outnumber their male counterparts.

Drawing upon wide-ranging original research including documentary and archival sources, newsfilm, press coverage of student life and life histories of men and women who graduated before the Second World War, this text provides rich insights into changes in student identity and experience over the past century.

The book examines :

men’s and women’s differing expectations of higher education the sacrifices that families made to send young people to college the effect of equality legislation
demography
changing patterns of marriage and the impact of the ‘sexual revolution’ on female students the cultural life of students and the role that gender has played in shaping them.

For students of gender studies, cultural studies and history, this book will have meaningful impact on their degree course studies.