| ID | 141753 |
| Title Proper | Great British education ‘fraud’ of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Ware, Alan |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | The role played by educational credentials in British labour market recruitment changed radically during the mid-twentieth century. Having higher or better credentials than others became a key determinant in selection for society's best-paid jobs. The resulting race for them has had perverse effects. A large minority of graduates earn no more than non-graduates or are in jobs for which they are ‘overeducated’. In various ways, the incentive to ‘stay ahead’ has prompted large expenditures by families to improve the qualifications a child obtains at school, while there is also now huge demand for postgraduate qualifications. Not only is there resulting social waste but also social injustice; while education was understood previously as a means of breaking down barriers to social mobility, it now has the opposite effect. This article explores the causes of these developments and outlines briefly how a new centre-left agenda for education might be constructed. |
| `In' analytical Note | Political Quarterly Vol. 86, No.4; Oct/Dec 2015: p.475-484 |
| Journal Source | Political Quarterly 2015-12 86, 4 |
| Key Words | Education ; Qualifications ; Graduates ; Over-Education |