GUEST POST Don’t make the dull middle class go to university

Dr Anonymous is a university lecturer on a short-term contract.

The current consensus about university admissions, although rarely put in quite these terms, is that all middle class children should have a place, plus a generous selection of the Worthy Poor. (A subsidiary assumption is that the middle class will come straight from school, while the Worthy Poor will include mature students).

Hence various attempts to score points from a drop in applications to universities this year. (No one contributing to this debate seems interested in intellectual life; all are motivated social and economic concerns.)

But would it would be a good thing if British universities were attended by far fewer middle class students?

The people best served,in social terms,by the current university system are dull/lazy/feckless middle class children, whether at state or private schools isn’t really relevant in this context. I’ll refer to them as DMC - dull middle class.

Over the last generation or more it has become increasingly difficult for them to avoid going to university, and thus apply for jobs which demand a degree. (See here, based on original research here, although I'm not sure you can access it without electronic access to a university library.)

The number of university places has increased, A-level grades have become less connected to intellectual interest or ability (which is not exactly the same as becoming easier, but is rather close), expectations from parents and teachers have hardened, public debate increasingly assumes that university is a prerequisite for any sort of worthwhile adult life.In these circumstances, it is difficult for DMC students to get off the conveyor belt of educational credentials.

This is a pity, because they are also the worst served by university in intellectual terms: doing the minimum amount of work, and playing the system in various ways. (That they can get away with this is in part because of the increasingly anonymous life at ever-larger universities, but that is another topic).

As I'm a university lecturer, middle-class teenagers of my acquaintance (and their parents) sometimes ask me about their applications. If they haven’t read a book recently, don’t have any intellectual interest or can’t explain their motivation for applying, then I suggest that perhaps university isn't for them, at any rate at this stage, regardless of their splendid GCSEs and AS module results. This advice tends not to be well received - that is another reason why this post is anonymous.

But what would happen if they took my advice? What would happen if DMC pupils were discouraged from applying to university, not by one cantankerous academic, but by parents, teachers, politicians, the media, and universities themselves? Here are some possibilities:

The intellectual life of universities would improve. Lecturers would not have to waste quite so much of their time (and the time of more engaged students)instilling such basics as a work ethic, time management, general knowledge, and how to write an essay. DMC undergraduates expect far more spoon-feeding than any other sector of the student population. Less tangibly, DMC students have an insidious effect on the culture of undergraduate life. They make it more difficult for others to realise how much they should be working, that it is okay to be really interested by a course etc. (Of course there are also uninterested working class students, too, but there far, far, fewer of them, they tend spend more time in paid employment, and are more likely to live at home, so their influence on their peers is much less.)

DMC students wouldn’t be burdened by debt, which is less likely to be matched by a well-paying job as increasing numbers are churned out by the credential system.

DMCs might actually be happier not going to university. Perhaps I seem a little harsh on them. The fact that they aren't academically engaged doesn’t mean they have no worthwhile qualities. Most human qualities aren't purely intellectual, after all. But they (and their parents) are persuaded by the current system to go to university regardless of their own disposition.

Social mobility would be enhanced if it was more difficult for DMC children to go to university. Social mobility should involve the opportunity for people to move down as well as up.(Nick Clegg’s recent speech on the subject contains some good things, but he couldn’t deal with this central point.) Yet the educational system at the moment serves to limit downward mobility for the DMC. Universities shouldn’t really exist to facilitate social mobility at all, but if this is what is expected of them, then it should be pursued systematically.

It might be claimed that the economy would suffer from fewer graduates, but graduates usually get better-paid jobs because they are graduates (which in the case of DMC graduates is because they have middle class parents), rather than because of specifics learnt at university, which they could not learn elsewhere. (Randall Collins' book Credential Society is very good on this.)

Of course, the idea of discouraging DMC students violates far too many financial, political, and institutional assumptions to be a credible policy suggestion at this stage. But perhaps it is a worthwhile aspiration?