Paired Peers: Moving on Up? The impact of social class on graduate destinations
Higher education (HE) plays a key role in social mobility but the precise processes and mechanisms by which this happens are still relatively under-researched. In particular the transition from university to work is the time when individuals can start to realize the social capital of HE, mediated by class and gender.
Paired Peers 2 builds on the first Paired Peers study (2010-2013), which was a three-year qualitative study of students’ experiences at the two universities in Bristol (University of Bristol and the University of the West of England).
Both projects consider the impact of social class, firstly on the undergraduate experience and then into the next stage of career-building and employment, and through this work to evaluate the role of HE in promoting social mobility. In Paired Peers 2 we also consider the gendered process of university to labour market transitions, since the initial phase of the project revealed stark gender differences in aspirations and approaches to career development.
Paired Peers 2: Moving On Up aims to complete the picture of the role of universities in promoting social mobility by exploring the processes of transition from higher education on to future lives and employment.
The Paired Peers projects are funded by the Leverhulme Trust and involve an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the universities of Birmingham, Bath, Bristol, UWE and Cardiff.