Relational inequality in a (deeply) educationally polarized society: feasible strategies in the longer term

Fifty per cent of young people in the UK will now go on to university. We focus here not so much on the consequent divisive material inequality but on relational and epistemic inequality, the inequality of respect and esteem adversely felt by the less educated. The huge advances in ICT have radically changed workplaces, creating more relational and ICT-intensive environments, in which social skills typically acquired at universities are central. In response to this we envisage an on-going growth in HE participation, the result of which if sufficiently large over time will be the spreading of respect and esteem. But we argue that success depends on a transformation of the HE system in the UK: we need more 2-year vocational colleges (especially in health, care and education), widely located; and we need 3-year degrees and professional schools to teach students to work cooperatively, in a more multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary way.