As the numbers of working-class students at university grow, we need to gain a better understanding of the different ways in which they consolidate their working-class habitus with the middle-class culture of the academic field. Drawing on data from a four-year longitudinal, qualitative study of working-class students at a large, research-intensive Canadian university, the seminar will focus on the experiences of those participants who fully embraced, became integrated and achieved academic success at university.

As the rest of the world struggles with high unemployment in the wake  of the Global Financial Crises, Australia faces the problem of skills  shortages. This is in part fuelled by China¹s increasing appetite for  Australia's natural resources.  Prosperity in Australia has brought its  own problems and successive governments have reduced funding for adult  education. Skills shortages have created a "moral panic" that dismisses  learning that doesn't fill a specific skills shortage as unworthy of  support.