Earlier this week four universities joined the Russell Group, a group of universities which attracts the vast majority of research funding in the UK. In doing so they illustrated the continuing inequality in the provision of higher education in Britain.
Though we often hear politicians talk about the need to tackle inequality in our nation's schooling, very little focus is given to addressing it in higher education. When inequality is raised at all, it concerns quantity rather than quality. Pledges like Tony Blair's target of sending 50% of school leavers to university show an admirable desire to increase the number of people who benefit from a university education but do little to ensure that education is of an adequate standard.
This is a real problem. In an increasingly globalised world, the only hope for industrialised economies like Britain to remain competitive is to develop their skills base. For that to be achieved a decent higher education system is essential. A system that excludes the majority of people from top-tier jobs clearly fails on that count.
Surely everyone should have access to the best education that resources allow. Of course it would be wrong to attack the quality of the best institutions, but how is it wrong to want to raise the standard of the average? In an age when grammar schools have been all but abolished it seems ridiculous to retain such a system for higher education.
A complete change in the way people perceive higher education is needed. Snobbish attitudes that a degree is a waste of time for some people have to go. It is true, there are some Mickey Mouse degrees out there. But that's the fault of an unequal education system, not young people aspiring for a better future.
The current system is an anachronism, not fit for the twenty-first century. If we're ever going to tackle inequality in this country, politicians need to acknowledge this.
