Higher Education and Occupational Returns: do returns vary according to students’ social origins?

Key takeaways

(file:///C:\Users\scott\Zotero\storage\42F3VSCP\Parsons%20et%20al_2016_Higher%20Education%20and%20Occupational%20Returns.pdf)

Bibliography: Parsons, S., Green, F., Wiggins, D., 2016. Higher Education and Occupational Returns: do returns vary according to students’ social origins? Centre for Longitudinal Studies.

Authors:: Sam Parsons, Francis Green, Dick Wiggins

Collections:: UCL BCS Dump

First-page: 4

Abstract

A wide evidence base has charted the social class gradient in the background of students going on to participate in UK higher education, and has shown that having a degree elicits substantial economic returns in terms of both occupational level and earnings. Recent evidence has also shown the wide variation in the social backgrounds of students enrolling on specific courses and that differential returns are attached to studying specific subjects at specific universities.

Citations

content: "@parsonsHigherEducationOccupational2016" -file:@parsonsHigherEducationOccupational2016

Reading notes

Imported on 2024-05-07 21:38

⭐ Important

& A wide evidence base has charted the social class gradient in the background of students going on to participate in UK higher education, and has shown that having a degree elicits substantial economic returns in terms of both occupational level and earnings. Recent evidence has also shown the wide variation in the social backgrounds of students enrolling on specific courses and that differential returns are attached to studying specific subjects at specific universities (p. 4)
& Here we use data from the longitudinal 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) to learn more about how this picture evolves in the longer-term. Although this cohort experienced university under a different set of circumstances from those facing today’s students, we can usefully study the lasting influences of social origins and participation in higher education. The effects are increasingly important to understand given the ever-greater numbers that have been participating in higher education since the 1960s and the substantial debts now accrued by graduates. In 2013-14 the participation rate among 17 to 30 year olds stood at 46.6%1, and in 2015 UK graduates can expect to have debts in excess of £30,000 (The UK Graduate Careers Survey, 2015). (p. 4)