CONNOLLYU17WP Social Mobility and Widening Participation in Higher Education in East Anglia

The Social Mobility Commission (2016a) has identified a deep social mobility problem in Britain which is worsening. Participating in higher education can be a key means of fostering social mobility, but participation is hampered in parts of the country by a combination of poor schooling and low aspirations among families and communities. Recent analysis (HEFCE, 2016) has highlighted how social exclusion and poor social mobility is not just a feature of deprived inner city areas of large conurbations and parts of East Anglia rank among the worst social mobility cold-spots in England. These areas have featured prominently in national debates about the so-called ‘left behind’ (Ford and Goodwin, 2014) and the geographical and socio-cultural cleavages exposed by the Brexit referendum (Katwala et al., 2016). In the aftermath of the referendum vote, ‘graduateness’ now appears to be a highly significant socio-cultural and political divide (Goodhart, 2017).

HEFCE are funding a consortium of higher education institutions in East Anglia, through its National Collaborative Outreach Programme, to more actively engage with schools and to strive to close the gap between expected and actual progression to higher education. The Network for East Anglian Collaborative Outreach (NEACO) began work in January 2017 and will run potentially for four years. The proposed PhD studentship provides additional academic research capacity to support the work of NEACO and generate new and useful insights into the local socio-economic and cultural dynamics that underpin low participation in higher education. It will involve work with schools, university outreach professionals, and youth and community groups across East Anglia to produce a scholarly social science study into social mobility and higher education among marginalised communities.

Applications for this studentship are invited from suitably qualified graduates.
Candidates applying for a 1+3 studentship should hold or expect to hold a relevant undergraduate degree.
Candidates applying for a 3 year studentship should hold or expect to hold a Masters qualification (which includes training in research methods and a independently researched dissertation) in a relevant subject area.
Candidates will be interviewed, usually via telephone or Skype, as part of the selection process. EU and International applicants may be required to provide evidence of competence in the English Language.

Applicants should submit a brief research statement that details what they think the key questions are in this area and how they might seek to undertake data analysis in this field.