Higher education is one of Britain’s big success stories but also the subject of intense political division. How many people should go to university, and how that education should be paid for, is hotly debated.
However, it’s not just cost that leads some Conservative politicians to worry about so many people studying. It’s the fear of the effect it might have, that universities are where their enemies in the culture wars – the battalions of “woke warriors” – are formed.
You can see why. Education plays a growing role in deciding which party you vote for, while studies have shown graduates are more culturally liberal (for example in favouring more equal gender roles). This is often seen as evidence that lefty lecturers are indoctrinating the youth but are they really doing the liberalising? No, is the answer from innovative research, using 30 years of data on the attitudes of graduates and non-graduates, which shows previous findings underplay what happens before and after university.
Rather than university making you liberal, it seems those who are predisposed to being liberal are more likely to go to university. And higher status jobs, into which people are increasingly sorted by virtue of having a degree, also drive cultural liberalism (higher earners are keener on migration than low earners). Once these are factored in, the direct effect of being at university is what you’d technically call “diddly squat”.
So, Tory MPs should focus their worry on energy bills, not university rolls. But everyone should consider the implication: who goes to university (and gets good jobs) is driven by values, not just educational potential – a recipe for culture wars that run and run.
• Torsten Bell is chief executive of the Resolution Foundation. Read more at resolutionfoundation.org
