UWE Bristol’s research on “Improving access to the university experience and graduate careers for young working-class people” has been selected as a case study by the British Educational Research Association (BERA) as part of its state of education major initiative. BERA aims to provide a comprehensive account of education as an academic discipline, a field of practice, and a significant element of social and political policy in the UK’s four nations.
As part of this initiative, BERA is publishing a collection of Research Excellence Framework (REF) impact case studies that highlight the creativity, diversity, and importance of educational research, particularly for policy and practice.
After a rigorous and systematic review of all the 230 REF case studies submitted nationally to the education unit, UWE Bristol’s research was chosen as one of just sixteen case studies to raise awareness of the value and positive impact of educational research, particularly among non-academic audiences, policymakers, and funding bodies.
The UWE Bristol research was conducted through the Paired Peers project led by Professor Harriet Bradley, which resulted in socially and economically disadvantaged university students having better access to the personal and professional opportunities offered by the university experience across the UK. It ran in two phases, covering a period from 2010 to 2017, following a cohort recruited during their first week at university through their time as students and into the graduate employment market.
The research uncovered how social class inequality affects university admissions, student experiences, and graduate outcomes. These inequalities persisted after university, with working-class students generally taking longer to settle into their careers and earning less on average.
The research had a significant impact regionally and nationally. Regionally, the University of Bristol implemented several new policies in 2015 as a consequence of the findings, including funded internships for underrepresented students, a fee waiver and bursary scheme, professional mentoring for undergraduates, and postgraduate bursaries for low-income families.
Nationally, the research led to changes in government guidance, third sector interventions, and improvements to widening participation practice and university admissions policies. More broadly, it has shaped institutional thinking and priorities and influenced how students benefit from university and their transition into employment.
UWE Professor of Education and Social Justice Richard Waller played a crucial role in the research project:
“As researchers on the project we weren’t especially surprised to find that the middle-class students tended to move into better paid and higher status jobs upon leaving university than their working-class peers. What did surprise us, however, was learning at close quarters the processes by which prior social and economic inequalities were reproduced by higher education, and how those from advantaged backgrounds were often coached in ‘how to ‘win’ at university’ by their schools and families before they even arrived there. Whilst there are undoubted benefits for working-class young people in going to university, higher education sadly isn’t necessarily the great social leveller or engine of social mobility that many people, including policy makers, assume.”