This study examines the proposition that mass higher education is, in practice, less a network of more or less homogeneous activities than a series of concentric circles in which elite institutions remain at the centre, but are surrounded by increasingly wide bands of universities and colleges, that are less and less likely to set graduates on the road to elite status the further they are from the centre. After a brief review of the classical and subsequent literature on elites and elite formation, the empirical study uses data from the very long established annual publication Who's Who to make a quantitative analysis of the higher education background of all 120,000 Who's Who entries born in the twentieth century. It finds that Oxford and Cambridge remained the dominant route to elite status throughout the century, though their share fell from about a third to about a quarter of the total. There were big rises in the contribution of other leading universities that have come to be known as the 'Russell Group'. An analysis by main occupational categories shows that the political elite broadened its educational catchment area more than other groups. The so-called 'public' (i.e. independent) secondary schools also continued to make contributions much larger than their numbers warrant. The main conclusions are that Bourdieu's notion of 'symbolic capital' offers a useful contribution to the interpretation of the continued dominance of well-known high status universities, and that while there was considerable change throughout the century, in general it followed the British tradition of being evolutionary and slow. In policy terms it concluded that the present government is justified in seeking both to widen participation generally and simultaneously to increase the number of people from modest economic and social backgrounds who attend the high prestige universities.
This paper analyses the unfolding of the quality agenda in England from 1992 to the present. By using two disciplinary approaches, 'political science' and 'social philosophy', the article traces the recent transition from quality assurance to quality enhancement. How is this development to be explained and how significant is it? Are the concepts of quality assurance and quality enhancement contested territories? The article argues that the undermining of quality assurance was the consequence of the emergence of a different kind of higher education politics in Britain: the shift from a corporatist model to one driven by pressure-group politics. Furthermore, although theoretically quality enhancement has the potential of a transformative discourse, it is unlikely to unsettle the relative stable structures in which quality assurance functions.
We are delighted to have been invited to edit the journal by the British Educational Research Association (BERA). As we begin our custodianship, we want to engage with a set of questions that emerges from the state of contemporary education: What counts as educational research? What, for that matter, counts as education? Is there a 'gold standard' of educational research? Who is best placed or best qualified to carry out educational research? Who are the readers of our journal and how do they read it? How can a journal focusing on the four nations of Britain also serve an international academic community?The journal that we are inheriting from the previous editorial team is in excellent shape, which puts us in a strong position to address the transforming international context of educational research, policy and practice. Our vision is that BERJ retains its hallmark of excellence and continues to showcase the best British and international research in education. At the same time, we hope that the journal will set the agenda for exploring the boundaries of educational research, how educational research relates to policy and practice, and who educational research is produced by and for.The editors of an academic journal in any field right now must also ask an additional set of questions: What is a journal and what is its role in the present academic and professional climate? What are the implications for a journal, and the field it serves, of open access, changes in forms of electronic publishing, and interaction with social media? Who reads an academic journal and how do readers find and access a particular article? The days when anyone 'reads' a single paper issue of a journal from cover to cover are surely numbered. Do we even need academic journals any more?We acknowledge that the field and disciplines of educational research, and the publishing practices that have traditionally served them, are in question. This presents challenges and opportunities for the journal. We believe that BERJ will maintain its brand of academic excellence throughout these transforming circumstances by being self-reflexive, and by encouraging submissions that question the nature of research and of the disciplines that contribute to our understanding of education. Our hope is
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