Two decades of government efforts to improve social
mobility have failed to deliver enough progress in reducing the
gap between Britain’s “haves and have
nots”, warns a new report
released today (Wednesday).
Commenting on the Social Mobility Commission’s report, the
University and College Union (UCU) said it was right to highlight
the role further education colleges played in educating students
from disadvantaged backgrounds, but warned that colleges needed
more investment to improve students’ skills, especially
post-Brexit.
The union said that students should be allowed to apply to
universities after they got their results to help improve access.
This follows a report that revealed
that the grades of the most able students from disadvantaged
backgrounds were most likely to be underestimated.
It added that universities could not see getting more
disadvantaged students through their doors as a measure of
success in itself, and that they needed to provide more support
for students throughout their time at university.
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: ’The opportunity
to improve social mobility is provided on a plate through our
further education colleges, which, as the report says, are used
by up to 80% of disadvantaged students before the age of
24.
‘But successive governments have failed our colleges, and
the students that rely on them, seeing them as easy targets for
cuts and the austerity agenda. Colleges must be given the chance
to flourish and deliver for people who want to get on in life,
especially as we seek to improve people’s skills
post-Brexit.
‘Our university system remains socially stratified and this
report says it would take 80 years at the current rate of
progress for disadvantaged students to catch up their better off
peers. A fairer universities admission system based on actual
grades, rather than predicted ones, would go a long way to
addressing inequality of access.
‘However, simply getting disadvantaged students through a
university’s door is not a measure of success. The report
highlights the higher drop-out rate among poorer students and we
need more effective action on supporting students through their
degree courses, and helping them get the sort of extra-curricular
experiences which are key to getting graduate jobs.’
