Earlier this year I looked at some fascinating new research exploring the impact the diversity of university students had on the happiness of a nation.  It found that countries that had more working class students appear to be happier than those with fewer.

The study found that policies such as delaying the streaming of children by ability or lowering the cost of private education all serve to reduce any gap in happiness between the richest and poorest in society.  This is largely because education coincides with happiness, so the more educated we are, the happier we tend to be.

Unfortunately, in many countries there is a clear correlation between wealth and educational achievement, with children from wealthier backgrounds outperforming those from working class backgrounds.  This creates a clear happiness gap before children even reach adulthood that is difficult to close for the remainder of our lives.

Unequal access

This is emphasized by new research from the University of York highlights that students from a working class background are half as likely to attend one of the elite London, Oxford or Cambridge universities than their peers from wealthier backgrounds, even if their academic achievements are comparable.

The researchers analyzed data from the 35,000 students currently living in the UK who undertook a masters degree after their initial degree.  The majority stayed at the same university to continue their studies, but of those who did move, some 24% of those with wealthy parents went to ‘golden triangle’ universities.  This compares to just 11% of those with poorer parents.

This gap persisted, even when students achieved a first class degree.  The authors suggest that part of the problem might be in securing funding for their postgraduate degree, which puts off students from poorer backgrounds.

“There is less mobility than we might expect, and those from advantaged backgrounds are much more likely to move institutions and to enroll in a master’s course in a golden triangle institution,” they say.  “Institutional immobility varies significantly based on the socio-economic background of graduates. Among those graduates that were institutionally mobile, the odds of enrolling in a golden triangle university vary greatly by socioeconomic classification.”

The authors believe their work is important because progression in careers is increasingly dependent upon securing a masters degree, and therefore equal access to the best institutions for such courses is vital to promoting equality in the workplace.  Access to masters education is also largely an area that has gone unnoticed in debates around widening participation in higher education.

With class-based diversity so important, both in academia and the workplace, it’s an important area to be addressed.