Are ethnic minorities underrepresented in UK postgraduate study?

Link to Higher Education Quarterly, vol 36, no. 1 (2009)

Despite recent rapid increases in postgraduate numbers, little is known about the ethnic background of current postgraduates. This lacuna is addressed using data about the UK postgraduate population. Overall, students from minority ethnic backgrounds are under-represented among research and teacher-training students but not on masters degrees. The trend over time is encouraging. Substantial differences between minority ethnic groups are found and patterns of participation are shown to be structured by subject of study, institutional location and prior attainment. It is argued that differences in representation must be understood in the context of existing knowledge about prior educational patterns and subsequent labour market outcomes. Viewed in this way, underrepresentation of certain minority groups is potential evidence of disadvantage but underrepresentation can be interpreted more positively for other groups. Concerns remain over minorities' access to research degrees and the implications of this for the demographic composition of the academic profession.

Social inequality, class and the classics

Published in Sociology, vol 42, no. 4 (2008)

White Faces, Black Faces: Is British Sociology a White Discipline?

Sociology, vol 41, no. 5 (2007)

In promoting its public profile, sociology must be mindful of the face it presents. Whilst ethnicity is a key sociological concept, little is understood about the ethnicity of sociologists or sociology students. Recent attention on a purported black `brain drain' to the USA charged UK sociology with hypocrisy for identifying ethnic differences elsewhere but failing to put its own house in order, implicitly alleging that the public face of sociology is white. Ethnic differences in sociology are investigated using extensive datasets about UK graduates and postgraduate students for 2001/2 to 2004/5.The findings indicate ethnic-group differences between first-degree graduates and postgraduates in sociology. `Rational' choice and Bourdieusian interpretations of these differences are discussed in the context of sociology's status as a subject in the academy and the labour market. Charges of hypocrisy are not proven, but neither is the discipline exonerated of myopia concerning its own ethnic composition.

La noblesse d'état anglaise ? Social class and progression to postgraduate study

British Journal of Sociology of Education, Vol 26, no. 4 (2005)

Despite rapid growth in UK postgraduate education and a current focus on issues of access to higher education, consideration of possible social class differentials at the postgraduate level is missing from the sociological literature. Using Higher Education Statistics Agency data, this paper presents a preliminary investigation of the relationship between social class and progression to postgraduate study in England and considers the interplay with other salient variables, including subject of study, institutional type and first-degree achievement. Evidence of a social class differential in progression to higher degrees is used to test various sociological theories, particularly those proposed by Bourdieu. There is support for the concept of ‘institutional habitus' developed in recent UK studies. It is concluded that there is scope for further in-depth empirical research into social class and postgraduate study.