Who is missing from higher education?

Table 7 - Students accepted for home degree in UK, 1994/95 to 1998/99

Source: National Statistics (2001)

However, if we compare the proportion of students and the proportion of the
population in each social class there seems to be an anomaly. For example, whereas
only around 25% of the population is in group II, around 40% of HE student
acceptances are in this group. And whereas around 4% of the population is in group
V, only around 2% of HE student acceptances are in this group
(http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/xsdataset.asp?More=Y&vlnk=313&All=Y
&B2.x=24&B2.y=8). Thus, the key indicator is not the breakdown of the student
body into social classes, but the rate of HE participation in each social class. But here
we reach the problem of age again, because most students are young and the
proportion of each social class in the population in changing over time. This problem
is traditionally overcome, to some extent, by using only the figures for traditional-age
students, for whom there is superior data.

There has been a considerable growth in overall HE participation, from 12% of the
traditional age cohort in 1980 to 35% in 2001. More importantly, however, Table 8
shows that this growth has been disproportionately among social classes IIIM to V
(the largely under-represented groups), rather than I to IIIN (the over-represented
groups). In 1940 an individual in one of the over-represented social classes was four
times as likely to go to HE as one from the under-represented social classes. As
recently as 1990 the odds remained at nearly 4:1. But by 2001 an individual from the
over-represented social classes was 2.6 times as likely to go to HE - still a
considerable difference but at least an improvement. Looked at another way, those in

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