Educational Opportunities: Working Classes

Lord Livermore Excerpts

Thursday 5th March 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lady Morris for securing this debate and for her inspiring opening speech. I want to focus on the opportunities for working-class young people in higher education.

Getting a degree from a leading university remains one of the surest routes to social mobility. I know this to be true. Twenty-five years ago, I was the only pupil in my school year who went to university. Today, I have the honour of speaking in your Lordships’ House.

Two decades later, despite many reforms and much investment, young people from a working-class background are still: more likely to have their A-level grades underpredicted; less likely to apply to university; less likely to be accepted; more likely to drop out; less likely to achieve the highest degrees; and less likely to work in an elite profession after graduating. On average, they will have lower earnings over the course of their life than their middle-class peers, even with exactly the same degree in exactly the same subject from exactly the same university.

This year, the World Economic Forum published its first global social mobility index. The UK was ranked 21st out of 82 countries, behind all Scandinavian countries, behind a further 10 EU member states and behind Switzerland, Canada, Japan, Australia and Singapore. If the UK is to survive and thrive in this global economy, it cannot afford to limit opportunities and waste talent on this scale.

The number of school leavers entering higher education varies dramatically by socioeconomic background, from over 80% in the most affluent areas to just 3% in the most disadvantaged. This variation begins well before a young person ever sets foot in a university. The highest- attaining students from disadvantaged backgrounds are those most likely to have their A-level grades underpredicted, with 1,000 high-attaining disadvantaged pupils having their grades underpredicted every year.

Working-class students also often lack the advice, guidance and support needed to navigate the university application process, and when they do apply, they are much less likely to be accepted. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are eight and a half times less likely to win a place at the most selective universities than those from more affluent backgrounds. Independent school pupils are twice as likely to gain a place at a leading university than state school pupils.

A recent report from the National Education Opportunities Network found that white youngsters in receipt of free school meals are the least likely of any group to study at university. More than half of universities in England have fewer than 5% white working-class students in their intakes, and of all applications to higher education by this demographic, only 22% were accepted.

Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show that the gap in drop-out rates between rich and poor students is widening, with 8.8% of disadvantaged students not returning as second-year students, compared with 6% of students from more advantaged backgrounds. In some universities, more than a fifth of students from the most disadvantaged social backgrounds dropped out in their first year.

According to research by the London School of Economics, if you are a working-class graduate with a first-class degree, you are less likely to land an elite job than if you are a middle-class graduate with a 2.2. Even if, as a young person from a working-class back- ground, you do get an elite job, you will earn on average 16% less than your middle-class counterparts.

The Sutton Trust, the leading think tank in this area, has proposed five policies to begin to tackle these issues. I would be grateful if the Minister could briefly indicate the Government’s position on each in her response. First, all universities should make better use of contextual admissions, where the social background of a university applicant is taken into account in the admissions process. Secondly, post-qualification applications should be implemented, where students apply only after they have received their A-level results. Thirdly, all universities should rigorously evaluate their outreach activities and should spend at least 10% of their outreach budgets on evaluation. Fourthly, the number of degree and higher-level apprenticeships should be increased as an alternative to university. Finally, maintenance grants for students should be restored to at least pre-2016 levels to reduce the debt burden on the least well off.