Family patterns of social mobility through higher education in England in the 1930s

Journal of Social History

Volumn 34, Issue 4, 2001, Pages 817-842

  Dyhouse, Carol ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX   (United Kingdom)

^b Arts Building   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0039298379     PISSN: 00224529     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jsh.2001.0049     Document Type: Review

References (60)

1. England's nine "other" universities, with the dates of their charters were: Birmingham (1900), Bristol (1909), Durham (1832), Leeds (1904), Liverpool (1903), London (1836), Manchester (1903), Reading (1926), and Sheffield (1905). The University Colleges, with their dates of foundation, were Exeter (1901), Hull (1926), Leicester (1922), Nottingham (1903) and Southampton (1905). For total numbers of full-time students, see Table 1.
2. W. H. G. Armytage, "Flexner to Truscot: The Stocktaking Phase of Civic University Development, 1930-1944," Universities Review 26 (1953): 5-6.
3. W. A. Kotsching, Unemployment in the Learned Professions: An International Study of Occupational and Educational Planning (London, 1937).
4. Kotschnig, Unemployment in the Learned Professions, 121; Armytage, "Flexner to Trustcot," 6.
5. Kotschnig, Unemployment in the Learned Professions, 121; Armytage, "Flexner to Trustcot," 6.
6. K. Lindsay, Social Progress and Educational Waste: Being a Study of the 'Free Place' and Scholarship System (London, 1926), 193.
7. D. V. Glass and J. L. Gray, "Opportunity and the Older Universities," in Political Arithmetic, a Symposium of Population Studies, edited by L. Hogben (London, 1938), 419.
8. L. D. Whiteley, The Poor Student and the University; A Report on the Scholarship System (London, 1933), 19.
9. G. S. M. Ellis, The Poor Student and the University; A Report on the Scholarship System, with particular reference to Awards made by Local Educational Authorities (London, 1925).
10. Whiteley, The Poor Student, 23-25, 78, 30. Whiteley was critical of the idea of student loans on the grounds that those Local Authorites offering them were ignoring their "duties of providing equal opportunities to all classes of able students, accepting the less costly and less glorious role of money-lender" (p. 78).
11. J. Floud, "The Educational Experience of the Adult Population of England and Wales as at July 1949," in Social Mobility in Britain, edited by D. V. Glass (London, 1954), esp. 112-16; A. H. Halsey, A. F. Heath and J. M. Ridge (eds.), Origins and Destinations, Family, Class and Education in Modern Britain (Oxford, 1980), 181-9, 206; M. Sanderson, Educational Opportunity and Social Change in England (London, 1987), 42; R. D. Anderson, Universities and Elites in Britain since 1800 (Basingstoke and London, 1992), 47-58.
12. J. Floud, "The Educational Experience of the Adult Population of England and Wales as at July 1949," in Social Mobility in Britain, edited by D. V. Glass (London, 1954), esp. 112-16; A. H. Halsey, A. F. Heath and J. M. Ridge (eds.), Origins and Destinations, Family, Class and Education in Modern Britain (Oxford, 1980), 181-9, 206; M. Sanderson, Educational Opportunity and Social Change in England (London, 1987), 42; R. D. Anderson, Universities and Elites in Britain since 1800 (Basingstoke and London, 1992), 47-58.
13. J. Floud, "The Educational Experience of the Adult Population of England and Wales as at July 1949," in Social Mobility in Britain, edited by D. V. Glass (London, 1954), esp. 112-16; A. H. Halsey, A. F. Heath and J. M. Ridge (eds.), Origins and Destinations, Family, Class and Education in Modern Britain (Oxford, 1980), 181-9, 206; M. Sanderson, Educational Opportunity and Social Change in England (London, 1987), 42; R. D. Anderson, Universities and Elites in Britain since 1800 (Basingstoke and London, 1992), 47-58.
14. J. Floud, "The Educational Experience of the Adult Population of England and Wales as at July 1949," in Social Mobility in Britain, edited by D. V. Glass (London, 1954), esp. 112-16; A. H. Halsey, A. F. Heath and J. M. Ridge (eds.), Origins and Destinations, Family, Class and Education in Modern Britain (Oxford, 1980), 181-9, 206; M. Sanderson, Educational Opportunity and Social Change in England (London, 1987), 42; R. D. Anderson, Universities and Elites in Britain since 1800 (Basingstoke and London, 1992), 47-58.
15. Halsey et al., Origins and Destinations, 206.
16. Anderson, Universities and Elites, 53; H. Perkin, "The Pattern of Social Transformation in England", in the Transformation of Higher Learning, 1860-1930: Expansion, Diversification, Social Opening and Professionalisation in England, Germany, Russia and the United States, edited by K. H. Jarausch (Chicago, 1983), 218.
17. Anderson, Universities and Elites, 53; H. Perkin, "The Pattern of Social Transformation in England", in the Transformation of Higher Learning, 1860-1930: Expansion, Diversification, Social Opening and Professionalisation in England, Germany, Russia and the United States, edited by K. H. Jarausch (Chicago, 1983), 218.
18. H. Perkin, The Rise of Professional Society: England since 1800 (London, 1989), 248-50; M. Sanderson, The Universities in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1975), 20; M. Sanderson, The Universities and British Industry, 1850-1970 (London, 1972), 98-9.
19. H. Perkin, The Rise of Professional Society: England since 1800 (London, 1989), 248-50; M. Sanderson, The Universities in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1975), 20; M. Sanderson, The Universities and British Industry, 1850-1970 (London, 1972), 98-9.
20. H. Perkin, The Rise of Professional Society: England since 1800 (London, 1989), 248-50; M. Sanderson, The Universities in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1975), 20; M. Sanderson, The Universities and British Industry, 1850-1970 (London, 1972), 98-9.
21. Anderson, Universities and Elites; see also the same author's Education and Opportunity in Victorian Scotland, Schools and Universities (Oxford, 1983).
22. Anderson, Universities and Elites; see also the same author's Education and Opportunity in Victorian Scotland, Schools and Universities (Oxford, 1983).
23. R. D. Anderson, "Universities and Elites in Modern Britain," History of Universities, 10 (1991): 238.
24. The quotation is from R. Crompton, Class and Stratification; An Introduction to Current Debates (Cambridge, 1998), 205; see also A. Witz, "Gender and Service Class Formation" in Social Change and the Middle Classes, edited by T. Butler and M. Savage (London, 1995), 45.
25. The quotation is from R. Crompton, Class and Stratification; An Introduction to Current Debates (Cambridge, 1998), 205; see also A. Witz, "Gender and Service Class Formation" in Social Change and the Middle Classes, edited by T. Butler and M. Savage (London, 1995), 45.
26. Some replies came in a long time later, and were not included in the response rates, though some of their interesting comments are included in the discussion below.
27. R. Hoggart, A Local Habitation (Life and Times, Vol 1: 1918-1940), (London, 1988), 184-5.
28. "B. Truscot" (E. Allison Peers), Redbrick University (London, 1943), 21.
29. Ibid., 20.
30. Ibid., note 1, 20.
31. J. Hall and D. Caradog Jones, "The Social Grading of Occupations," British Journal of Sociology, 1/1 (1950). See also C. A. Moser and J. Hall, "The Social Grading of Occupations" in Social Mobility in Britain, edited by D. V. Glass (London, 1954).
32. J. Hall and D. Caradog Jones, "The Social Grading of Occupations," British Journal of Sociology, 1/1 (1950). See also C. A. Moser and J. Hall, "The Social Grading of Occupations" in Social Mobility in Britain, edited by D. V. Glass (London, 1954).
33. Differences between universities are also interesting, though there is no space to take them up here. A fuller exposition is given in a companion paper.
34. Truscot, Redbrick University, 20, note 1. There are no women from Nottingham in my sample, which may distort the picture, as Nottingham men come disproportionately from lower social strata.
35. Anderson, Universities and Elites, 56.
36. Whiteley, The Poor Student, 29.
37. University Grants Committee, Returns from Universities and University Colleges in Receipt of Treasury Grant, Academic Year 1937-8 (London, 1939), 5. Brian Simon estimated that before the war, "just over half of the students in the modern universities originally went to elementary schools"; see A Student's View of the Universities (London, 1943), 42.
38. University Grants Committee, Returns from Universities and University Colleges in Receipt of Treasury Grant, Academic Year 1937-8 (London, 1939), 5. Brian Simon estimated that before the war, "just over half of the students in the modern universities originally went to elementary schools"; see A Student's View of the Universities (London, 1943), 42.
39. Simon, A Student's View, 46.
40. C. Heward, Making A Man of Him: Parents and their Sons' Education at an English Public School 1929-50, (London, 1988), 77 and passim.
41. J. Howarth and M. Curthoys, "The Political Economy of Women's Higher Education in late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century Britain," Historical Research, 60/142 (1989).
42. J. Howarth and M. Curthoys, "Gender, Curriculum and Career: A Case Study of Women University Students in England before 1914," in Women, Education and the Professions, edited by P. Summerfield: History of Education Society Occasional Publications, No 8, (Leicester 1987).
43. Whiteley, The Poor Student, 24.
44. R. L. Miller and B. C. Hayes, "Gender and Intergenerational Mobility," in The Social Mobility of Women, Beyond Male Mobility Models, edited by G. Payne and P. Abbott (Basingstoke, 1990), 61-3.
45. Ibid., 62.
46. University Grants Committee, Returns from universities and university colleges in receipt of Treasury grant for the academic year 1937-38 (London, 1939), figures for England, leaving out Oxford and Cambridge, abstracted from Table 1; C. Dyhouse, No Distinction of Sex? Women in British Universities, 1870-1939 (London, 1995), ch. 3.
47. University Grants Committee, Returns from universities and university colleges in receipt of Treasury grant for the academic year 1937-38 (London, 1939), figures for England, leaving out Oxford and Cambridge, abstracted from Table 1; C. Dyhouse, No Distinction of Sex? Women in British Universities, 1870-1939 (London, 1995), ch. 3.
48. Heward, Making a Man of Him, 77.
49. J. Copley, Autobiography, vol 1, "Mother and Father", 165 (unpublished Mss).
50. On this theme see (for instance) Carolyn Steedman's "Introduction" to K. Woodward, Jipping Street (London, 1983).
51. B. Jackson and D. Marsden, Education and the Working Class (Harmondsworth, 1962), 97. See also A. Miles, Social Mobility in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century England (Basingstoke and London, 1999), 151-2, for comments on mothers as "inculcators of ambition".
52. B. Jackson and D. Marsden, Education and the Working Class (Harmondsworth, 1962), 97. See also A. Miles, Social Mobility in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century England (Basingstoke and London, 1999), 151-2, for comments on mothers as "inculcators of ambition".
53. Letter from Mrs A. Fletcher, 24 Oct 1998.
54. J. Hubback, Graduate Wives (London, 1954); J. Hubback, Wives Who Went to College (London, 1957).
55. J. Hubback, Graduate Wives (London, 1954); J. Hubback, Wives Who Went to College (London, 1957).
56. Collection of press cuttings and reviews relating to Wives Who Went to College held by J. Hubback.
57. On marriage and social mobility see A. Heath, Social Mobility (Glasgow, 1981), ch. 4.
58. "Labour Lost by Love", The Economist, June 26 1954, 1036.
59. H. Phelps Brown, The Inequality of Pay (Oxford, 1977), 254.
60. For the idea of demand for higher education spreading like an infection, or as snowballing, see R. Layard, J. King and C. Moser, The Impact of Robbins (London, 1969), 16-17.