Help or hindrance? Higher education and the route to ethnic equality

Upward social mobility has been evident among British ethnic minority communities since the 1960s, and education appears to have had a key role in this process. Despite this, social scientists have been slow to consider the link between education, ethnicity and social stratification. The role of higher education has been particularly neglected. Although there has been some suggestion of an ethnic bias in the allocation of university places, previous work in this area has been limited by the nature of the data that have been available and by the types of analysis that have been conducted. This article includes detailed consideration of the key stages of the university application procedure, and particular attention is given to the role of candidates' predicted and actual A-level grades. Although young people from ethnic minority backgrounds are admitted into university in large numbers, it is suggested that higher education has an ambivalent role in relation to ethnic equality. Institutional biases mean that ethnic minority candidates are filtered into the new university sector, and it is concluded that biases in education and the labour market combine to create a cumulative pattern of ethnic disadvantage.