Social Class and Undergraduate Degree Subject in the UK
Massimiliano Bratti, DEAS, University of Milan
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ABSTRACT:
Although past research has established the existence of strong
social class effects on the decision to undertake higher education in
the UK, there is only sparse empirical work investigating social class
influences on the choice of degree subject at the undergraduate level.
We estimate trinomial probit models of undergraduate degree subject
enrolled for the period 1981-1991 using Universities’ Statistical Record
data and generally find no social class effect. This finding is robust to
different ways to aggregate degree subjects and the use of alternative
econometric models. Our analysis suggests that in a period pre-dating
the mass expansion of higher education, the replacement of student
grants with student loans and the introduction of undergraduate student
tuition fees, the UK university system granted equal opportunities
to students from different social classes in terms of the degree subject
enrolled.
SUBJECT AREA:
C25 I21
SUGGESTED CITATION:
Massimiliano Bratti,
"Social Class and Undergraduate Degree Subject in the UK"
(November 2005).
UNIMI - Research Papers in Economics, Business, and Statistics.
Economics.
Working Paper 7.
http://services.bepress.com/unimi/economics/art7
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