Education as a source of growing social and political cleavage in Great Britain
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: School of Social Sciences
Abstract
Educational attainment, particularly obtaining a university degree, is rapidly becoming the key social and political cleavage in modern Britain. The growing importance of university education in shaping the contours of public opinion has been evident for some while but was brought to the forefront of public debate during the EU referendum.
The deepest gradient in the Brexit vote was between graduates and non-graduates, a cleavage which now also dominates preferences between Labour and the Conservatives as well as a range of other areas of public controversy and debate. This has led to a focus amongst politicians and the commentariat on what is driving the growing divide, with some attributing the phenomenon to liberal biases of the academic community. This, in turn, has led to a series of high profile critiques of university governance and funding and allied concerns of the emergence of a 'culture war'.
This PhD dissertation will apply advanced statistical methods to a range of key ESRC longitudinal data resources (the cohort studies, Understanding Society, the British Election Study) to investigate the nature and causes of educational polarization in modern Britain. As well as describing how public opinion has been shaped by increasing graduate concentration since the early 1990s, the thesis will address the extent to which the distribution of public attitudes are shaped, on the one hand, by non-random selection into universities and, on the other, the educational and experiental effects of university education.
The deepest gradient in the Brexit vote was between graduates and non-graduates, a cleavage which now also dominates preferences between Labour and the Conservatives as well as a range of other areas of public controversy and debate. This has led to a focus amongst politicians and the commentariat on what is driving the growing divide, with some attributing the phenomenon to liberal biases of the academic community. This, in turn, has led to a series of high profile critiques of university governance and funding and allied concerns of the emergence of a 'culture war'.
This PhD dissertation will apply advanced statistical methods to a range of key ESRC longitudinal data resources (the cohort studies, Understanding Society, the British Election Study) to investigate the nature and causes of educational polarization in modern Britain. As well as describing how public opinion has been shaped by increasing graduate concentration since the early 1990s, the thesis will address the extent to which the distribution of public attitudes are shaped, on the one hand, by non-random selection into universities and, on the other, the educational and experiental effects of university education.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Patrick Sturgis (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Elizabeth Simon (Student) |
Publications
Simon E
(2021)
Explaining the educational divide in electoral behaviour: testing direct and indirect effects from British elections and referendums 2016-2019
in Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties
Kanagasooriam J
(2021)
Red Wall: The Definitive Description
in Political Insight
Simon E
(2022)
Demystifying the link between higher education and liberal values: A within-sibship analysis of British individuals' attitudes from 1994-2020.
in The British journal of sociology
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES/P000673/1 | 01/10/2017 | 30/09/2027 | |||
| 2122717 | Studentship | ES/P000673/1 | 01/10/2018 | 30/09/2022 | Elizabeth Simon |
| Description | The aim of this studentship award was to gain a fuller understanding of how education has become a source of growing social and political cleavage in Great Britain, through applying advanced statistical methods to key ESRC longitudinal data resources. Specifically, it sought to address the extent to which the distribution of British public attitudes has been shaped, on the one hand, by non-random selection into universities and, on the other, the educational and experiental effects of university education. Thus far, this award has generated substantial new knowledge in this area. Firstly, research undertaken has provided a more complete picture of why modern British politics divide along educational lines. Using British Election Study Internet Panel data, and a novel mediation methodology, research associated with this award has demonstrated that vote choices have divided along educational lines in recent British political contests (the EU referendum, 2017 and 2019 General Elections) largely because educational groups exhibit divergent economic orientations, cultural attitudes, and cue-taking behaviours. Only armed with this knowledge of why British politics are actually dividing along educational lines can we make informed predictions about this divide's potential future impact or make any endeavours to reconcile these stark educational divisions, which have the potential to endanger social cohesion and the functioning of British democracy. Secondly, research undertaken has contributed to demystifying the link between higher education participation and liberal values. Using Harmonised British Household Panel and Understanding Society data (from the period 1994-2020), and a within-sibling design, allowed the identification of education's 'true' causal effect on British individuals' political values. In doing so, research associated with this award has found that, contrary to popular assumptions about education's liberalising role, the education-political values linkage is largely spurious. Finally, research undertaken using data from the 2015, 2017 and 2019 general elections finds that individuals with identical educational qualifications have voted in different ways in different kinds of English and Welsh Parliamentary constituencies. Constituency economic situation, level of 'left behind-ness' and interactions and social network effects all play important roles in moderating the influence of educational attainment on voting behaviours. This research clearly demonstrates that the impacts of the British educational cleavage are not felt evenly across space, and therefore that it is inappropriate to describe the educational divide in British general election voting in a monolithic way. |
| Exploitation Route | The key findings generated facilitate calculated speculation as to how shifts in parties' policies could alter educational allegiances. Findings also allow consideration as to how the changing educational concentration of the British population will impact mass opinion. They suggest that generations of increasing HE enrolment rates, which result in the degree-educated proportion of the British population rising every year, will not, by themselves, result in any long-term shift in public opinion. Both of these insights will be of interest to those seeking to predict the outcomes of future British political contests - including pollsters, politicians and academics. The novel finding that higher education participation is not the cause of British graduates' liberal values, and rather that this linkage is driven largely by self-selection mechanisms - those who experience pre-adult environments conducive to the formation of certain values disproportionately choose to enrol at universities - is of interest to the government, and institutions such as the Department for Education. It tells us that higher education does not play an un-anticipated liberalising function in society - rather, it simply acts to train the next generation for their roles in the modern economy. This finding also serves as a basis for rejecting claims, popular among right-leaning commentators, that British HE institutions are hotbeds of left-wing bias. Tackling such discourses is likely to have important consequences for the funding, legitimacy and status of universities. By identifying the areas in which education-based vote polarisation were larger and smaller than average, this research also provides a basis for taking targeted action to reconcile the educational divide. |
| Sectors | Education,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Description | Blog for John Smith Centre |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Blogged for John Smith Centre on second paper of thesis 'Demystifying the link between higher education and liberal values: A within-sibship analysis of British individuals' attitudes from 1994-2020' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.johnsmithcentre.com/research-blog/studying-at-university-does-little-to-change-our-attit... |
| Description | Blog for LSE Politics and Policy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Blogged for LSE Politics and Policy on the second paper of my thesis 'Demystifying the link between higher education and liberal values: A within-sibship analysis of British individuals' attitudes from 1994-2020' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-liberalising-effect-of-university-study-is-overstated/ |
| Description | Blog for UK in a Changing Europe |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | blogged on key findings of first thesis paper 'Explaining the educational divide in electoral behaviour: testing direct and indirect effects from British elections and referendums 2016-2019' for UK in a Changing Europe |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://ukandeu.ac.uk/educational-attainment-referendum-voting/ |
| Description | Blog for Understanding Society |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Blogged for Understanding Society on paper 2 of the thesis 'Demystifying the link between higher education and liberal values: A within-sibship analysis of British individuals' attitudes from 1994-2020' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/blog/2022/10/24/does-university-make-you-liberal |
| Description | Blog for Wonkhe |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Blogged for Wonke on second paper of thesis 'Demystifying the link between higher education and liberal values: A within-sibship analysis of British individuals' attitudes from 1994-2020' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://wonkhe.com/blogs/universities-as-left-wing-madrassas-are-a-myth/?utm_content=buffere2a71&utm... |
| Description | Conference Presentation - EPOP |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presented the third paper of my thesis 'The Geography of Educational Effects: Understanding Where Individuals with Identical Qualifications Vote Differently across Britain' at the Elections, Public Opinion and Parties Conference in September 2022 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |