ERIC Number: EJ1361452
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Jan
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0038-0407
EISSN: EISSN-1939-8573
Social Origin and Access to Top Occupations among the Highest Educated in the United Kingdom
Sociology of Education, v96 n1 p43-61 Jan 2023
U.S. studies have found that stratified graduate education accounts for most of the relatively strong intergenerational socioeconomic association among postgraduate degree holders. The same association has been observed, but not explained, in countries with higher education systems that differ from that of the United States. We explore the mediation role of undergraduate- and graduate-level stratification in accounting for the intergenerational occupational association among postgraduate degree holders in the United Kingdom. We find that the unequal distribution of undergraduate-level education and path dependency between undergraduate- and graduate-level stratification help to give rise to an unequal occupational outcome by social origin among postgraduate degree holders. We explain this by the tight coupling of undergraduate and graduate education in the United Kingdom. Our analysis also illustrates the need to go beyond graduate education in understanding social origin inequality among postgraduate degree holders to examine the role of undergraduate education and how it is linked to graduate education.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Undergraduate Study, Graduate Study, College Graduates, Career Choice, Social Class, Educational Attainment, Educational Mobility, Social Mobility, Occupational Mobility, Power Structure, Generational Differences, Socioeconomic Status, Status
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom; United States
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A