Professor Claire Callender
Claire Callender is Professor of Higher Education Studies at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society. She is a Deputy Director of CGHE. Claire led on CGHE Project 5, ‘Student loan debt and graduate decision-making’ which explored the impact of income-contingent student loan debt on English graduates’ lives using both quantitative and qualitative methods. It showed how loan debt can have negative effects on graduates’ lives.
Claire’ research is significant because of growing global concerns about graduates’ rising student loan debt and its potentially damaging consequences for graduates, governments, and society. Yet, government rhetoric and most extant research ignore the realities of repaying student loans. US-based studies of indebted graduates, which dominate the existing literature, have limited relevance outside the US, especially in countries with income-contingent student loans. Importantly, the qualitative lens adopted in the research counters the overrepresentation of quantitative economic studies which limit understandings of graduates’ subjective experiences. The research challenges policy makers’ misplaced assumptions about income-contingent student loan debt, in the hope of informing a more rounded global debate about student funding.
Claire’s other research, writing and policy advice focus on student finances in higher education and related issues. Claire was awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours 2017 for services to higher education.
Claire’s full profile is available on UCL’s website.
CGHE publications
- Changing Higher Education for a Changing World
- Graduates’ responses to student loan debt in England: “sort of like an acceptance, but with anxiety attached”
- Graduate indebtedness: its perceived effects on behaviour and life choices – a literature review
- The entry and experience of private providers of higher education in six countries
- English and American higher education access and completion policy regimes: similarities, differences and possible lessons
- Research findings: Graduate indebtedness: its perceived effects on behaviour and life choices – a literature review
CGHE research projects
Upcoming Events
Past Events
- CGHE Annual Conference 2024 – The Future of Higher Education
- (INVITE ONLY) Student funding: New insights into tackling the challenges ahead
- The student loan debt crisis and the economic and societal consequences: Reflections on the United States and England
- CGHE Annual Conference 2023 – From Higher to Tertiary: Democratising Post-School Education
- Signals in the storm: Higher education, digital communication and geo-politics – CGHE’s 300th seminar/webinar
- CGHE Annual Conference 2022 – Higher education knowledge in a plural world
- Confronting the forthcoming reforms of England’s student loan system: graduate perspectives
- English higher education reworked: what are the likely outcomes of the Government’s new student loan and tertiary participation package?
- CGHE Annual Conference 2021: Remaking higher education for a more equal world
- Higher education and the hopes of the world: The next three years of CGHE research
- Changing Higher Education for a Changing World: A Book Symposium in West Pacific
- CGHE BOOK LAUNCH: Changing Higher Education for a Changing World
- Who borrows for higher education? The determinants of student debt in England
- What is a university education and where is it going? Critical reflections by David Willetts and two respondents
Select publications
- Callender, C. & De Gayardon, A. (2021). Hidden Voices: Graduates’ Perspectives on the Student Loan System in England. HEPI Report 145.
- Callender, C., & Dougherty, K. (2021). Comparing and learning from English and American higher education access and completion policies. Policy Reviews in Higher Education. doi:10.1080/23322969.2020.1737959
- De Gayardon, A., Callender, C., & DesJardins, S. L. (2021). Does Student Loan Debt Structure Young People’s Housing Tenure? Evidence from England. Journal of Social Policy, 1-21. doi:10.1017/s004727942000077x
- Callender, C. (2020) Will the Augar Report’s recommendations stem the decline in part-time study? HEPI: Oxford 28/02/2020
- Callender, C., Marginson, S., & Locke, W. (2020). Changing Higher Education for a Changing World. Bloomsbury Academic.
- Callender, C., Deane, K. C., De Gayardon, A., & DesJardins, S. (2020). Student loan debt: Longer term implications for graduates in the United States and England. In C. Callender, W. Locke, S. Marginson (Eds.), Changing higher education for a changing world. London: Bloomsbury.
- Callender, C. (2020). Student Debt in M. David and M. Amey. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Higher Education. London: Sage Publishing
- de Gayardon, A., Callender, C. and Green, F. (2019) The determinants of student loan take-up in England, Higher Education volume 78, 965–983
- Callender, C (2019) Post-18 Education and Funding in England, International Higher Education, (99), 13-15.
- Callender, C and Dougherty, K. (2018) Student Choice in Higher Education—Reducing or Reproducing Social Inequalities? Social Science, 7:10:1-28; doi:10.3390/socsci7100189
- Callender, C. (2018) Student mothers in higher education. In P.J. Burke, A. Hayton and J. Stevenson (eds) Evaluating Equity and Widening Participation in Higher Education. London:Trentham Books, 88-110.
- Callender, C and Thompson, J. (2018) The lost part-timers:The decline of part-time undergraduate higher education in England, London: Sutton Trust
- Callender, C. (2018) Stop the decline in part-time undergraduate study, Wonkhe
- Callender, C. (2018) Lifelong learning? Part-time undergraduate provision is in crisis, THE
- Callender, C and Mason, G. (2017) Does student loan debt deter higher education participation? New evidence from England, The Annals of American Political and Social Science, 671 (1): 20-48.
- Callender, C. (2017) Part-time student numbers are plummeting-here’s why, Prospect
- Callender, C. (2017) Fear of debt really is deterring the poorest from university, Wonkhe
- Callender, C. (2017) Poorer students aren’t applying to university because of fears of high debts, The Conversation
- Callender, C. (2017) High Participation in Higher Education, Implications for Funding. In J.C.Shin & P. Teixeira (Eds.) Encyclopaedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions, Springer Netherlands online
- Callender, C. (2017) Cost-sharing and student support. In P. Scott, J. Gallacher, and G. Parry (eds) New Languages and Landscapes of Higher Education, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 103-126.
- Scott, P and Callender, C. (2017) United Kingdom: From binary to confusion. In P. Altbach, L. Reisberg, and H. de Wit (eds) Responding to Massification: Differentiation in Postsecondary Education Worldwide. Hamburg:The Körber Foundation, 121-130.
- Callender, C (2017) Access for all. In Kate Murray (ed) Life Lessons: A National Education Service that leaves no adult behind. London: Fabian Society, 16-18.
