Abstract
Over recent decades, the number of young people benefitting from higher education has increased considerably as the sector has expanded and ‘massified’. However, despite this shift, there remain – in many countries across the world – significant differences by social class in access to higher education. For example, of younger adults (i.e. those under 35), OECD data show that 23 per cent of those whose parents did not attain upper secondary education attained tertiary education themselves, compared with 65 per cent of their counterparts whose parents had also attained tertiary education (OECD, 2015). Furthermore, students from more advantaged backgrounds also more likely that their less advantaged peers to gain access to the most prestigious institutions (Boliver, 2013). Differences, by social class, have also been widely documented in relation to students’ experiences of higher education, and their transitions from higher education into employment.