'You can only get a degree!' Theoretically situating the alterations to the back to education allowance welfare to education programme of 2003/04

This article critically examines the Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) as a mechanism of social inclusion for Irish welfare recipients through participation in third-level education. The article is based on empirical data from focus group and in-depth qualitative interviews with third-level students on the BTEA, and key informants. The article adopts a strong ‘structural’ position, situating the source of social exclusion in the structured inequality of the labour market and the state, which disadvantages particular groups in society. In an era of unprecedented growth in Ireland, the first signs of a fiscal crisis saw cuts made to welfare programmes in 2003/2004. The article examines the resultant changes made to the BTEA, utilising Mutch’s adaptation of Bourdieu’s field theory to form a theoretical understanding of how and why these restrictive changes to the BTEA occurred.