‘Science is cool’

Due to differences in school systems between Ukraine and Austria, Ukrainian adolescents often enter university earlier than Austrian students. This episode of the Knowledgeable Youth podcast discusses the variations in higher education. The students’ conversation centres around Agata Zysiak’s article ‘Bleaching Blue Collars’ that draws insights from the experiences of first-generation students under state socialism in Poland and the barriers they faced when trying to enter university. The students share their own thoughts about entering university and the difficulties and challenges they might encounter in Vienna.

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Bleaching blue collars

Socialist reform and modernization in post-WWII Poland opened the higher-education gate to underprivileged students. But early streaming to vocational school and societal expectations remained as barriers. What became of the working-class freshers who made it to the lofty heights of academia?