Questioning the UK government’s vision of higher education and social mobility

A public seminar from the Department of Education, given by Dr Susan James Relly, Assistant Director of SKOPE. Over recent years UK governments have expanded higher education and with it the supply of graduates. This expansion is linked to social mobility through meritocracy. However, the number of traditionally graduate jobs has not increased in line with higher education expansion. One result of this policy is graduates entering not just graduate jobs but non-graduate jobs. Using qualitative and quantitative data from research on the occupation of real estate agents selling residential properties in the UK – a traditionally non-graduate occupation being ‘graduatised’ – this presentation asks: Is this trickle down the occupational hierarchy really what the government envisioned in terms of social mobility when expanding higher education and widening access?