Changes in governmental financial support are causing many would-be students to question the value of higher education or to consider attending a local university. Oral history testimonies provide a source for understanding the role that living, as well as working, within an academic community plays in the learning lives of its alumni. An understanding of the cultural and social space provided by an institution offers an insight into how time spent in higher education remains integral to long-term learning lives, often articulated as marking a "watershed" or inspiration. Interviews for the University of Winchester Alumni Voices project invited alumni and retired staff to reflect on the process of learning generated by their time at Winchester (previously King Alfred's College). At the article's core is the significance of oral history narratives to the social history of learners and learning. We discuss how we have developed voice relational analysis in order to interrogate the transformative impact of learning on individuals' sense of self. The richness of the data from a small scale research project and the increasing sophistication of oral history methodology demonstrate the relatively untapped potential that histories of higher education hold for understanding individual learning lives. (Contains 1 note.)