This is a short summary of the methodology used to conduct the study. For the full methodology (including the full list of items and the statistical analyses) see https://policypress.co.uk/student-lives-in-crisis. The research explored the experiences of young people in university in England, Italy and Sweden by employing a mixed-methodological strategy and a cross-national research design. In addition to policy analysis, the research combined a Q-methodology survey completed by 84 students across the three countries with 33 follow-up in-depth and semi-structured interviews. The research was guided by two core research questions: how do young people's experiences in university vary across socioeconomic backgrounds? How are young people's experiences in university shaped by different welfare sources? The methodological strategy used is inductive, as the research aimed to capture new relationships between young people's experiences in university (with regard to finance, housing, wellbeing and education), welfare sources and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Combining Q-methodology and in-depth interviews

Q-methodology is an instrument that allows the exploration of subjective viewpoints and combines rigorous quantitative techniques with qualitative interpretation. It is used in particular to explore ‘personal experiences’ as well as ‘values’ and ‘beliefs’. In practice, in a Q-methodology study participants are asked to position predefined statements in a predefined grid (for example, as in this case, from +5, representing most agreement, to –5, representing least agreement). The usual grid used in Q-methodology consists of a prearranged frequency distribution with the shape of a normal distribution, which reflects the observation that extreme opinions tend to be concentrated on fewer items, while most items attract more moderate opinions.

What distinguishes Q-methodology from other approaches aimed at exploring individual views is the possibility of presenting a range of viewpoints in the form of items (defined as the Q-sort), which are sorted by participants (defined as the P-set) according to their subjective evaluation. Crucially, these items are not sorted one by one, but altogether, as they are compared with each other by participants to provide the participants’ global viewpoint on a certain matter. The second method employed in this mixed-methodological design is the follow-up in-depth interviews. In-depth interviews have not only provided additional material in relation to Q-methodology, but have also permitted further exploration of the link between subjective and objective elements emerging from the Q-sort and from the analysis of the individual data.