Conference Program

Degrees of value: Cultivating privilege at an elite university

This study examines how students at the London School of Economics (LSE) perceive the value of their university degree. While existing research in Sociology of Education has focused on strategies used by pupils to secure access to prestigious schools and universities (Kosunen and Seppänen, 2015; van Zanten, 2019), less is known about strategies used during time at university to gain positional advantage. This is a highly relevant research topic, as recent university graduates are facing unfavourable social mobility prospects (Bukodi and Goldthorpe, 2018), while attending elite education favours, but no longer guarantees elite outcomes (Wakeling and Savage, 2015). The research employs mixed methods, combining a survey of second- and third- year undergraduates with follow-up in-depth interviews. The survey captures students’ perceived educational gains, priorities during university, as well as beliefs about factors influencing success at university and in the labour market. Students with different profiles — defined by the goals prioritised and their understanding of success —were selected for in-depth interviews. Findings show how under perceived conditions of social congestion (Brown, 2013), students approach elite higher education as a site for cultivating multiple forms of graduate capital (Tomlinson, 2017). Even though many respondents tended to emphasise ‘knowing the right people’ as most important for getting a good graduate job, this did not seem to influence their priorities during university. Even though social congestion made students more cynical about the meritocratic nature of the hiring process, this perspective did not permeate their understanding of the value of their university degree. Their narratives alternated between doubts about the meritocratic claims of hiring processes and faith in meritocracy as an organising ideal of higher education. Instead of being seen as hollowing out students’ academic endeavours, early career development could be understood as an overlapping priority.