The Class Ceiling, BBC Radio 4, includes brief comment from Andrew Dilnot, Principal
The Class Ceiling, BBC Radio 4
01/09/2011, 9am & 9.30pm
First of a two-part series in which Polly Toynbee explores why social mobility in Britain has stalled.
In this programme, she looks at how our early education and opportunities affect our chances later in life, and why the massive expansion of the university sector since the 1960s has disproportionately benefited the middle classes. Includes an interview with Shirley, who dropped out of education before joining BSix College in Hackney where she took part in the Pem-Brooke programme, a year-long access scheme run with Pembroke College in Oxford which culminates in a week-long summer school and which aims to get bright students to apply to research-intensive universities. Shirley will take up a place at Birmingham University shortly. Also includes an interview with Sean, a student at Cockermouth School in Cumbria, which has A level results below the national average, who is now on his way to Oxford to study physics after being supported through the application process by his teachers. Also includes brief comment from Andrew Dilnot, Principal of St Hugh’s College, on the gap between those at the top of the income distribution and everyone else, and from Dr Lee Elliot Major of the Sutton Trust on research by the Trust which found that around half of state school teachers would not advise their brightest students to apply to Oxbridge.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013qz77
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