18 August 2010
Clegg 'turning back the clock' on new generations of students
The university think tank million+ has welcomed Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s clear commitment to social mobility, made in his speech earlier today (Wednesday). However, on the day before a-levels results are announced and with thousands of applicants expected to miss out on university due to a shortage of places, Professor Les Ebdon, Chair of million+ and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire, has warned that Nick Clegg is ‘wrong’ in insisting that increased participation in university has not increased social mobility.
Professor Ebdon said: “The Coalition Government should be applauded for putting social mobility at the top of their agenda but it risks failing to tackle the problem if it gets it wrong on increasing participation in universities. It would be extremely short-sighted if we were to turn back the clock on the new generations of students who have been encouraged to apply to university.
“Thousands of well-qualified applicants are likely to be left without a place at university this year. There is a very real and serious risk that many individuals from poorer backgrounds, who have been at the heart of the drive to uplift aspirations, will be the very students who do not get a place in 2010. These students are central to any increase in social mobility.
“Young people who might have gone to university, those in their early twenties whom we always wanted to go to university and those in their 30s and 40s who have never been to university but who are now applying to increase their skills, face the prospect of being relegated to the ranks of the long-term unemployed with all the personal, family and health and societal consequences which this brings.
“Modern universities make a very significant contribution to social mobility and many are keen to make a bigger contribution if more, rather than less, funded places were made available by the Government.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
- The million+ report, Social Mobility: universities changing lives found that modern universities are creating significant mobility by occupation group and showed that graduates from these universities earn significantly more than they would had they not gone to university at all. Key findings included:
• On entry to university, 8% of the student cohort came from professional families. Three and a half years after graduating, 17% of these students had similar professional or managerial careers.
• Three and a half years after graduating, wages of graduates from million+ affiliated universities are likely to be nearly 15% higher than wages of people who have lower qualifications, many of whom could have progressed to university but did not do so
• Modern universities have a more diverse student profile including a higher proportion of black, Asian, female and older students compared to the average for all UK universities. This provides opportunities for social mobility across a very broad section of the population and in respect of other equality indicators.
• These universities are offering this social mobility on a significant scale and educate over half of the UK’s higher education students.
The full report can be downloaded here - million+ is a leading university think-tank, working to solve the complex problems in higher education www.millionplus.ac.uk
- For more information, comment or interviews from million+ please contact Victoria Mills on 020 7717 1659 or 07900 277819