Universities

The University of Life report, looks at a range of activities offered at university, to examine how well they develop employability and essential life skills in students, as well as whether access to such opportunities differs by socio-economic background.

This Universities and Social Mobility research is a landmark piece of work for the study of social mobility in this country, utilising data on socio-economic background and education pathways linked to adult labour market outcomes for several entire school cohorts. This provides the clearest picture yet on the role of higher education in social mobility.

Cost of Living and University Students. Students are known for making do on a tight budget. But those close margins make them particularly vulnerable to the rising cost of living.

This polling, conducted by Savanta for the Sutton Trust, examines how the ongoing cost of living crisis is impacting students, particularly those from working class families.

Inequality in the Highest Degree. When it comes to social mobility, the goalposts are always moving. As access to any given level of education becomes more common, inequalities tend to move upwards, with those from better-off backgrounds seeking to keep their advantages. While access to undergraduate degrees has been improving, with more and more young people going onto university,  there is now a risk that postgraduate degrees become the new frontier of social mobility, with better-off graduates using higher degrees to differentiate themselves in a competitive job market.

Reforming Student Maintenance. While the tuition fee system has received much political and media attention in the last two decades, far less attention has been paid to student maintenance. But for many students, this funding is of more immediate importance, and can have a major impact on whether they can afford to move away from home, how much paid work they need to undertake during their studies, and even whether they can afford to go to university at all.