Moving on up: ‘first in family’ university graduates in England

ABSTRACT

This paper provides the first quantitative analysis on ‘first in family’ (FiF) university graduates in the UK. Using a nationally representative dataset that covers a recent cohort in England, we identify the proportion of FiF young people at age 25 as 18%, comprising nearly two-thirds of university graduates. Comparing groups with no parental higher education we find that ethnic minorities and those with higher levels of prior attainment are more likely to become a FiF, while those who are FiF are more likely to study Law, Economics and Management and less likely to study other Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities than students whose parents are graduated. We also find evidence that FiF students are less likely to graduate from elite universities and are at greater risk of dropout in general, even after prior educational attainment and socioeconomic status are taken into account.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• widening participation
• university access
• dropout
• intergenerational educational mobility

Acknowledgments

The Nuffield Foundation is an endowed charitable trust that aims to improve social wellbeing in the widest sense. It funds research and innovation in education and social policy and also works to build capacity in education, science and social science research. The Nuffield Foundation has funded this project (grant number EDO/43570), but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation. More information is available at www.nuffieldfoundation.org. This work was supported by the Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE). CGHE is a research partnership of international universities supported by the Economic and Social Research Council, the Office for Students and Research England (grant reference ES/M010082/1)).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Nuffield Foundation [EDO/43570] and the Economic and Social Research Council & the Office for Students and Research England [ES/M010082/1].

Notes on contributors

Morag Henderson

Dr Morag Henderson is a quantitative sociologist and co-investigator of Next Steps, an English longitudinal study. She currently works in the Department of Social Science at UCL Institute of Education as an Associate Professor in Sociology. Her main research interest is on educational inequalities and she has written extensively on the socio-economic attainment gap; educational transitions; the influence of subject choice on subsequent educational attainment and labour market outcomes; the influence of parenting practices and academic self-concept.

Nikki Shure

Dr Nikki Shure is a Lecturer in Economics (Assistant Professor) in the Department of Social Science at the University College London Institute of Education and a Research Affiliate at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). She completed her PhD in Economics as a Weidenfeld Scholar at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include the effects of childcare on maternal labour supply, non-cognitive skills and educational outcomes, gender and ambition, international comparisons of education systems, and inequalities in access to higher education and the labour market.

Anna Adamecz-Völgyi

Dr Anna Adamecz-Völgyi is a Research Associate in the Department of Social Science at the University College London Institute of Education in London and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute of Economics Center for Economic and Regional Studies in Budapest. She is also a Research Fellow at the Global Labor Organization (GLO). She completed her PhD in Economics at the Central European University (CEU). Her research investigates the causal effects of educational interventions, the relationship of education and fertility, looks at educational mobility, and gender, ethnic and social inequalities.