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Social Class and Undergraduate Degree Subject in the UK

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Author Info
Massimiliano Bratti () (University of Milan, CHILD and IZA Bonn)

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Abstract

Although past research has found 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. Using Universities’ Statistical Record data for the period 1981-1991, we find no social class effect on students’ undergraduate degree subjects enrolled. 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.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 1979.

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Length: 40 pages
Date of creation: Feb 2006
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1979

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Related research
Keywords: degree subject; social class; UK; undergraduate;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models
I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

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