Abstract

Why is it that a talented child from a poorer background is less likely in Britain to climb the social ladder? Low social mobility and lack of educational opportunity is arguably the biggest social challenge of our times.

The income gap between the richest and poorest in society continues to widen, while education opportunities remain overwhelmingly dominated by the most privileged. Every university-educated English-born Prime Minister since the war went to one university: Oxford. Another Trust study found that four private schools and one elite college sent more students to Oxbridge over three years than 2,000 schools and colleges across the UK.

But what can we do about it? This lecture will focus on the role of education in improving social mobility, and preventing the subsequent waste of talent it causes.

Dr Lee Elliot Major is Chief Executive of the Sutton Trust, previously overseeing its research work. He is a founding trustee of the Education Endowment Foundation. He writes and speaks regularly in the national media on social mobility and education issues, and was formerly an education journalist working for the Guardian and Times Higher Education Supplement. He was the first in his family to attend university.