LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION – the Widening Education Gap in Britain and How Where You Live Determines Your Chances
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LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION – the widening education gap in Britain and how where you live determines your chances Contents Executive summary Top and worse 20 for degrees National rank no qualification National rank degree London Major UK cities Executive summary Where you live will determine your chances of educational success and people living in traditionally underachieving areas are proportionately less likely to have a degree now than they were at the last election. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION – the widening education gap in Britain and how where you live determines your chances report from the University and College Union (UCU) analyses educational achievement by Westminster parliamentary constituency in England, Scotland and Wales and ranks each according to the percentage of people with at least some qualifications and the percentage of people with a degree or above. Research has shown that the cost to the UK economy of educational underachievement is over £18 billion a year*. This report shows how access to education is divided up, using national league tables and an analysis of 21 of our biggest cities. It shows that where you live is a key determinant of whether you will gain qualifications. The result is a country of stark contrasts – a true postcode lottery for education. To take one example, two out of three people (60%) living in Nick Clegg’s Sheffield Hallam constituency have a degree and only 3% have no qualifications at all. However, just down the road in David Blunkett’s Sheffield Brightside constituency almost a quarter of people (23%) have no qualifications and just 15% have a degree. As more people go to university constituencies who have had the highest participation rates in the past have seen further rapid increases in the number of residents with degrees or better. In the 20 constituencies with the highest level of participation in higher education, the proportion, on average, of the working age population with a degree-level qualification and above increased from 48.8% in 2005 to 57.2% in 2008. However, worryingly, the constituencies at the bottom of the pile have seen academic achievement decline. Between 2005 and 2008, in the 20 constituencies with the lowest level of participation in higher education, the proportion, on average, of the working age population with a degree-level qualification and above fell from 12.6% to 12.1%. The report shows enormous regional variations in access to education. Of the 20 constituencies with the highest percentage of people with no qualifications, the West Midlands accounts for eight of them and occupies the four bottom spots. Roger Godsiff’s Birmingham, Sparbrook and Small Heath constituency has the highest percentage of people with no qualifications (37%) with the Business, Skills and Innovation Minister, Pat McFadden’s Wolverhampton South East constituency next (36%). The other two West Midlands constituencies to make up the bottom four are Ken Purchase’s Wolverhampton North East (32%) and Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liam Byrne’s Birmingham Hodge Hill (30%). Hodge Hill also has the lowest percentage of people educated to at least degree level - just one in 10. A third of the constituencies with the lowest percentage of graduates can also be found in the West Midlands. Although a lot of the constituencies with the lowest levels of educational achievement are traditional ‘Labour’ seats in the larger towns and cities, three constituencies in the East of England feature among those with the lowest percentage of people who have a degree or better. Two of the constituencies, Harwich and South West Norfolk, are held by the Conservatives - Douglas Carswell and Christopher Fraser respectively. The other is Labour MP Anthony Wright’s Great Yarmouth constituency, indicating that the issue of providing fair access to education is cross party. London attracts the highest number of graduates, with 17 of the 25 constituencies that boast the most graduates found in the capital. However underneath that veneer London has many areas where a substantial percentage of the working age population have no qualifications at all – making access to education in the capital a true tale of two cities. The 21 cities individually analysed in the report are Birmingham, Bradford, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Coventry, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London , Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Plymouth, Sheffield, Southampton, Stoke and Wolverhampton. * The Cost of Exclusion: Counting the cost of youth disadvantage in the UK, Sandra McNally & Shqiponja Telhaj, April 2007. http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/about_the_trust/what_we_do/research/cost_of_exclusion.aspx The data within the report comes from the Annual Population Survey which is a combined survey of households in Britain. The datasets were extracted from the NOMIS website and are subject to ONS Crown Copyright. https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/ Location, location, location - the widening education gap in Britain and how where you live determines your chances http://www.ucu.org.uk/locationlocationlocation Top 20 for degrees % with at least degree/NVQ 4 2005 2006 2007 2008 % of % of % of % of working age working age working age working age Overall Constituency population population population population progress Richmond Park 51.24% 55.38% 60.08% 63.61% 12.37% Bristol West 63.04% 58.16% 59.41% 62.49% -0.55% Kensington and Chelsea 55.56% 52.77% 54.15% 62.25% 6.70% Hampstead and Highgate 54.42% 52.52% 59.82% 61.38% 6.95% Hornsey and Wood Green 47.77% 55.20% 56.88% 59.77% 12.00% Manchester, Withington 50.35% 52.37% 54.35% 59.54% 9.19% Sheffield, Hallam 45.96% 53.02% 54.24% 59.53% 13.58% Battersea 57.42% 54.18% 65.99% 58.61% 1.18% Tooting 46.16% 51.25% 57.82% 58.30% 12.13% Hammersmith and Fulham 51.20% 57.02% 58.15% 58.02% 6.82% Dulwich and West Norwood 48.90% 49.93% 55.69% 56.40% 7.50% Cities of London and Westminster 45.95% 48.41% 59.85% 55.24% 9.30% Edinburgh North and Leith 49.13% 48.38% 48.91% 54.76% 5.63% Putney 35.87% 50.00% 44.77% 54.35% 18.48% Cambridge 46.42% 47.29% 46.55% 53.74% 7.32% Wimbledon 53.69% 52.93% 55.66% 53.32% -0.37% Glasgow North 46.63% 50.44% 48.74% 52.82% 6.19% East Dunbartonshire 46.63% 49.50% 51.57% 52.65% 6.03% Twickenham 45.00% 51.37% 54.45% 52.04% 7.04% Hackney North and Stoke Newington 28.73% 32.39% 37.48% 50.46% 21.74% Average 48.84% 57.22% 8.38 Worse 20 for degrees % with at least degree/NVQ 4 2005 2006 2007 2008 % of % of % of % of working age working age working age working age Overall Constituency population population population population Progress West Bromwich East 18.78% 16.23% 13.22% 14.41% -4.37% Warley 19.33% 15.29% 13.75% 14.02% -5.31% Castle Point 7.85% 12.48% 16.86% 13.77% 5.91% Bolton South East 13.27% 14.62% 14.39% 13.74% 0.47% West Bromwich West 12.92% 16.88% 14.41% 13.64% 0.72% Rhondda 17.27% 17.52% 16.92% 13.42% -3.86% Wolverhampton South East 8.31% 7.03% 9.98% 12.99% 4.68% Liverpool, Walton 11.69% 16.60% 11.61% 12.92% 1.23% Stoke-on-Trent Central 17.95% 21.50% 16.37% 12.38% -5.57% Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle 14.08% 15.15% 13.18% 12.33% -1.76% South West Norfolk 14.10% 15.23% 15.33% 12.20% -1.90% Nottingham North 13.02% 10.56% 12.66% 11.76% -1.26% Great Yarmouth 12.41% 9.65% 15.77% 11.69% -0.72% Kingston upon Hull East 8.45% 12.07% 11.25% 11.32% 2.87% Pontefract and Castleford 14.08% 16.22% 13.07% 11.31% -2.76% Harwich 13.58% 14.04% 11.21% 11.01% -2.57% Bootle 11.22% 12.69% 10.74% 10.70% -0.53% Walsall North 8.30% 8.72% 11.25% 10.02% 1.72% Doncaster North 12.85% 12.55% 10.40% 9.96% -2.89% Birmingham, Hodge Hill 7.06% 5.96% 8.75% 9.91% 2.85% Average 12.58% 12.14% -0.44% Top and Worse 20 1 UCU 2009 Location, location, location - the widening education gap in Britain and how where you live determines your chances National ranking - no qualification http://www.ucu.org.uk/locationlocationlocation National ranking Region Constituency Working age Percent with no MP Party population qualifications 1 South East Oxford West and Abingdon 65,500 1.98% Dr Evan Harris MP Lib Dems 2 East Mid Bedfordshire 68,100 2.50% Ms Nadine Dorries MP Con 3 South East Epsom and Ewell 60,800 2.80% Mr Chris Grayling MP Con 4 Yorks/Humber Sheffield, Hallam 47,200 3.39% Mr Nick Clegg MP Lib Dems 5 Scotland Edinburgh South 57,800 3.63% Mr Nigel Griffiths MP Lab 6 South East Horsham 69,500 4.03% The Rt Hon Francis Maude MP Con 7 South East Romsey 60,700 4.12% Mrs Sandra Gidley MP Lib Dems 8 East Midlands Rushcliffe 67,100 4.32% The Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke QC MP Con 9 South East Witney 63,700 4.40% The Rt Hon David Cameron MP Con 10 London Richmond Park 74,200 4.45% Ms Susan Kramer MP Lib Dems 11 South East Wokingham 64,600 4.49% The Rt Hon John Redwood MP Con 12 South East Chesham and Amersham 54,600 4.58% Mrs Cheryl Gillan MP Con 13 South East Guildford 69,600 4.60% Ms Anne Milton MP Con 14 Scotland Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath 56,300 4.62% The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP Lab 15 London Hampstead and Highgate 95,800 4.70% Ms Glenda Jackson CBE MP Lab 16 Yorks/Humber Leeds North West 72,200 4.71% Mr Greg Mulholland MP Lib Dems 17 South West Bristol West 83,700 4.78% Mr Stephen Williams MP Lib Dems 18 Scotland Edinburgh North and Leith 68,300 4.83% Mr Mark Lazarowicz MP Lab 19 South East Canterbury 65,700 4.87% Mr Julian Brazier TD MP Con 20 London Tooting 65,700 4.87% The Rt Hon Sadiq Khan MP Lab 21 South West Woodspring 59,000 4.92% Dr Liam Fox MP Con 22 South East Wantage 62,600 4.95% Mr Ed Vaizey MP Con 23 South East Fareham 56,100 4.99% Mr Mark Hoban MP Con 24 London Cities of London and Westminster