Employer's Social Mobility Alliance

University education confers social, cultural and economic benefits on individuals and provides the gateway to most high-status professions.1 Consequently, it is often regarded as a vehicle for social mobility. UK graduates are more likely to be employed than non-graduates and their long-term prospects remain strong:2 74% of new jobs created in the future are expected to be in occupations with high concentrations of graduates. Labour market projections estimate 1.5 million more professional and managerial roles in the economy by 2024.3

But this social mobility narrative has been called into question over recent years. There is some evidence that the growth of the graduate labour market has not kept pace with the expansion of higher education, resulting in greater competition over jobs. Consequently, this weakens the status of degrees and places greater pressure on students to enhance their employability in diverse ways, such as through internships and postgraduate qualifications.4 In this competition, students from higher socio-economic backgrounds are at a strategic advantage because they have family resources that can facilitate career development, such as social networks and financial capital. It is students from lower socio-economic backgrounds who have been most ‘detrimentally affected by educational expansion or graduate inflation, as they have no other form of capital to exchange for a (graduate) employment position’.5

Some researchers have suggested that existing policies towards higher education are likely to increase rather than decrease barriers to equal participation, and contribute to greater socio-economic inequality.6 The increased marketisation of the sector has intensified stratification. There is a striking social divide between universities that recruit mainly local students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and highly selective universities that recruit nationally and are composed of students mainly from higher socio-economic backgrounds.