Working for social mobility

Universities cannot resolve the problems of inequality in

society on their own
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• Kevin Whitston
• The Guardian, Tuesday 16 September 2008
• Article history

Who is responsible for widening participation in higher education? Too often answers to
this question - being debated at fringe meetings at the three main political conferences
this autumn - shift responsibility between universities and schools, parents and
communities. This game of pass-the-parcel doesn't help anyone, but it's easy to see why it
happens.

Realistically, what are higher education institutions (HEIs) or schools expected to

achieve? Educational inequalities correlate closely with just about every other sort of
inequality from income and employment to housing and health. Indeed, schools and HEIs
are both part of the solution and part of the problem. Many failing schools serve areas of
deprivation, whereas research-intensive institutions take four-fifths of their students from
better-off backgrounds. Both reflect and reproduce inequality.

The real question is not who should be responsible for widening participation to HE -
schools, colleges, higher education establishments and government all have a role to play
- but what we should be doing about it. We should get away from sentimental appeals to
middle-class conscience on the one hand, and unrealistic expectations matched by scare-
mongering about social engineering on the other. Better to focus on what can practically
be done.

For Hefce (the Higher Education Funding Council for England), the question is: what
contribution can higher education make?

Growth in poorest communities

This article is the first of a series over the coming weeks looking at action being taken by
the sector to help widen participation. Interventions include working with schools;
supporting learners (mentoring, summer schools and student ambassadors); fair
admissions; opening up new kinds of opportunity and ensuring learners' success.

So is there any evidence that we are making progress? It is often argued that the middle
classes were the ones to benefit most from HE expansion, so much so that social mobility
has declined. But this misreads social trends in the last quarter of the 20th century. The
growth of inequality during the 1980s may have cramped the life chances of a generation,
but if social mobility has stalled now it is because the growth in managerial and
professional jobs has slowed, not because more of the middle classes have degrees.

Remarkably, data on HE participation shows a rapid growth among young people who
grew up in the 80s in the poorest communities.

Since 1998, participation from the most deprived areas has increased by 33% (4.5
percentage points), compared to 4% (1.8 percentage points) from the least deprived areas
(see chart, right). The difference in the rate of growth is dramatic. The chances of young
people going into HE from the most deprived 20% of areas was increasing around eight
times faster than the least deprived 20% of areas.

Data on the social class gap tells a similar story. Participation among the top three social
groups actually fell between 2002 and 2006, while participation among the lowest
increased. This has narrowed the social class gap by over six percentage points. Progress
has not been uniform, nor would we expect it to be.

In the early 1980s, before the big expansion of HE, the top three social groups entered
HE at 4.7 times the rate of the lower socio-economic groups. In the 1990s, the absolute
gap in percentage points between social groups widened. Now it is narrowing absolutely
and proportionately and there is no doubt about the long-term trend.

Social mobility

At the end of the century that advantage was reduced to 2.6 times. And when the data is
examined more closely, it is participation among people from routine and manual
occupational backgrounds where growth is strongest. Higher education has always been
an important factor in the social mobility of individuals from communities without the
economic resources and social connections of their wealthier neighbours, and it still is.

Progress in addressing social inequality is slow, with no short fixes, but clearly crucial for
reasons of social justice and economic competitiveness. The rate of progress could be
better but there are no short-term fixes. Social inequality is the result of a dynamic set of
relationships; gaps closed in one direction repeatedly open up in another. The sector's
commitment to widening participation, led by Hefce, weighs in on the side of greater
equality and opportunity. It mitigates disadvantage and provides the encouragement,
insight and support that releases potential. Higher education cannot resolve social
inequality on its own. If institutions are to build on the progress already achieved,
incorporating a commitment to widening participation into the way they understand their
mission and purpose is key.

· Kevin Whitston is head of widening participation, Hefce

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/16/highereducation