Increased higher education participation has failed to deliver big improvements in social mobility across wealthy countries, according to new research.

Although degrees are seen as a key route to upwards mobility, the study warns that institutions are “often not realising this potential” with students from low-income backgrounds still poorly represented within elite universities.

Researchers from the charity The Sutton Trust found that higher education participation is associated with better earnings outcomes across 20 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Those who participate in higher education are generally more likely to make it into the top 20 per cent of earners than those who do not but a degree is often not enough to help graduates from non-graduate families catch up with graduates from graduate families.

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The trust said that this demonstrates both the potential and the limits of higher education in terms of social mobility.

Among the countries studied, the proportion of 35- to 44-year-olds who were the first in their family to attend university rose 11 percentage points between 2012 and 2023 – compared with 5 percentage points for those with graduate parents.

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However, this was offset by an eight percentage point fall in the uplift in earnings associated with a degree. Individuals from non-graduate families were 45 per cent less likely to become top earners than their more privileged peers.

As a result, overall social mobility was “flat and even declining in some countries”, with family background still a strong predictor of future earnings, according to the report.

Billy Huband-Thompson, head of research and policy at the Sutton Trust, said: “This research demonstrates how different social, cultural and economic forces have shaped educational pathways in different countries, and challenges assumptions about higher education being a ‘silver bullet’ for social mobility.

“If we want to spread opportunity across the country, we also need a range of high-quality, vocational and technical routes for those who don’t enter university, which includes the majority of young people from lower-income backgrounds.”

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Researchers found little evidence of specific reforms that might help improve higher education’s role in social mobility and warned that a heavy reliance on the university route could reflect the weakness of alternative options.

They suggested that multi-pronged approaches through vocational and technical routes could help, highlighting Ireland’s approach as an example of how higher education can provide opportunities for participation to those who previously lacked them.

Alongside Chile and Lithuania, Ireland was one of only three countries to widen university access and also improve social mobility.

In the UK, one in three graduates from non-graduate families were found to be top earners – compared with one in eight non-graduates from similar backgrounds. But graduates from advantaged families were still found to maintain an advantage.

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Nick Harrison, chief executive of the Sutton Trust, said the report should be a “wake-up call” to UK policymakers and education leaders and called for a “doubling down” on efforts to widen access to more selective institutions.

“But higher education alone can’t do all the heavy lifting. We need a much stronger mix of routes across the whole of tertiary education, and more action to address barriers to opportunity in the labour market and employment.”

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With nearly a million 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK not currently in education, employment or training, Harrison said “the stakes for the government’s post-16 education reforms couldn’t be higher”.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com