Beyond hard barriers: Lack of aspiration as a soft barrier to access higher education amongst youth living in low-income housing estate

Abstract

This article explores the perceived barriers inhibiting the youth’s access to higher education. The article goes beyond the hard barriers to explore “lack of aspiration” as a soft barrier impeding access to higher education amongst the youth. In this article, the term “soft barrier” refers to lack of aspiration, a less tangible aspect that is much more subjective and less easily measurable. On the other hand, “hard barriers” are understood as factual issues that are easily recognisable and measurable, financial issues, for instance. This article interrogates lack of access to tertiary education as a key development problem in South Africa. Hence, the youth are underdeveloped socially, economically, and academically. The article draws from youth experiences to interrogate inadequate access to tertiary education and its impact on youth vulnerability. In this qualitative study, youth residing at Kenneth Gardens were interviewed to generate data. This study found lack of aspiration as a major soft barrier impeding the youth from accessing higher education. Among other factors, this study also found financial issues, informational barriers, and inability to meet the minimum university entry requirements as the underlying hard barriers impeding young people from accessing higher education. Keywords: aspirations, barriers, capabilities, development, higher education and youth