Higher education, career opportunities, and intergenerational inequality

Abstract

The UK government has expressed a desire to increase social mobility, with policies to help achieve this aim focused on reducing inequalities in educational attainment. This paper draws together established and new information about the contribution that higher education can make to social mobility using a life-course approach, considering differences by family background in terms of university attendance and achievement, as well as occupation and earnings following graduation. We find substantial socio-economic differences at each stage. Young people from poorer backgrounds are, on average, less likely to go to university than their richer peers. Even among the selected group who do go to university, they are less likely to attend the highest status institutions, less likely to graduate, and less likely to achieve the highest degree classes. These differences in degree outcomes contribute to the lower average earnings of graduates from poorer families, but earnings differentials go well beyond those driven purely by degree attainment or institution attended. The evidence strongly suggests that, even after taking these factors into account, graduates from affluent families are more likely to obtain a professional job and to see higher earnings growth in the labour market. We discuss the implications of these findings for the prospects of higher education as a route to greater social mobility.

Changes in Children’s Science-Related Career Aspirations from Age 11 to Age 14

“…Bukodi et al 2015;Macmillan et al 2015). Within such work, the transmission of advantage or disadvantage to children has remained somewhat unclear in terms of how, exactly, it operates or occurs but has often been assumed to be Bcumulative^(DiPrete and Eirich 2006); for example, disadvantaged children may be less likely to achieve at school, (therefore) less likely to attend or be able to attend university, and (therefore) less likely to enter occupations that may require high or particular qualifications (Crawford et al 2016;Macmillan et al 2015). Nevertheless, many diverse factors may be relevant.…”

The path from social origins to top jobs: social reproduction via education

“…It is therefore vital to take account of such educational differentials in a refined way in order to capture the role of education in accounting for the link between origins and elite social class destinations. Young people from poorer backgrounds are less likely than those from better off families to go to university at all, and those who do go are less likely to attend high status institutions (Crawford et al ). As well as status differentials between universities, there are also differences in status and wage returns between degrees in different subject areas (Croxford and Raffe ; Jackson et al ; Kim, Tamborini and Sakamoto ; Ma and Savas ; O'Leary and Sloane ; Patrignani and Conlon ; Walker and Zhu ).…”

From the Cradle to the Grave: The Influence of Family Background on the Career Path of Italian Men

“…See section II for a detailed review. 2 For the UK (another country characterized by low social mobility), Crawford et al (2016) document a large earnings advantage for well-off children within the group of tertiary graduates, while Macmillan, Tyler and Vignoles (2015) and Gutierrez, Micklewright and Vignoles (2014) find that parental networks are important to attain top managerial and professional jobs. However, Gutierrez et al (2014) do not find a clear direct influence of some proxies of parental networks on wages.…”