To those who went/know of uni pre 1960s/70s - was it more wealth based who went to what uni?

[Nyorkie500]

& what courses people did? Or was it more like the current day where grades is what mattered above things like family wealth eg for doing medicine at Oxford for example?

Higher education in the 60s & 70s, even after the “plate glass revolution” would look to us overwhelmingly white, drawn from ABC1 class categories (middle and upper) and still overwhelmingly male, although they thought they were making progress. Even as the HE sector grew, middle and upper class young women took up most of the additional places. What social mobility there was mainly fed up through grammar schools.

Pretty much what I came on to say.
During this time we had an elite HE system rather than a mass system which is what we have now.

I went to uni in the early nineties but I always remember older people saying that they used to get housing benefit during the summer holidays.

You could sign on during the university vacations. I got unemployment benefit (supplementary benefit, I think it was called) during my first long summer vacation as I had glandular fever and couldn't get a job. Mrs Thatcher put a stop to that soon afterwards, IIRC.

@Wbeezer

I read an interesting investigation of social mobility in the 50s,60s,70s (sorry, can't remember where). The main takeaway was that it was labour shortages that led to social mobility rather than educational opportunities. Firms needed to keep good workers so on the job training and regular promotion was offered, even to school leaves, wages also increased. People could move from job to job easily chasing better opportunities or conditions, just go down the labour exchange. Holds true in my family: DDad and FIL both from similar working class backgrounds, FIL left school at 15 no qualifications, DDad went to uni, both moved up in the world and ended up comfortably off. Education played only a small part, the numbers going to gramnar school & uni were too small to explain social mobility. Incidentally, my Dads full grant was so generous he used to send money home to help out his parents!

That's so interesting.

Yes df went to university in the late 50s, again poor family background

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

No question about that. I think I might be at the tail end of the baby boom (born in very early 60s). Free secondary education, unlike those born in the 1930s; NHS; state pensions; final salary occupational pension schemes; no university tuition fees; generous maintenance grants and no loans for the minority who did get into higher education; affordable house prices; until the late 80s most people had wages/salaries that paid enough to support a family with no benefits or tax credits needed. I feel we are a very lucky generation indeed.

You and I must be similar vintage! My parents had to leave school at 14 as they were poor and working class kids had to start work at that age to contribute. They worked hard, bought their own home and, while never really financially comfortable, they did well compared to where they started. Siblings and I passed 11+, went to state grammar school then on to red brick universities with grants (not full grants but still helpful), there were plenty of holiday jobs available and we could claim supplementary benefit if needed. Not many went to university, I think it may have been about 20% of leavers but am not sure. Speaking of my own time at a Northern redbrick university late 70s. Very few were from wealthy families, almost all of us were working class, lived in 3 bed semis, overwhelmingly white and boys outnumbered girls considerably

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
"Are you sure they went to teacher training college? My mum went to teacher training college in the early 1950s in Scotland with Scottish Highers under her belt. All the girls who left my school at 16 and didn't go to FE/sixth form college or another sixth form went to secretarial college. I'm sure I recall from careers literature that you needed at least one A level to go into teacher training."

Yes, definately. Although the ones I clearly remember were going to "do" PE if that makes a difference.
There were a couple who went to a finishing school in Switzerland that I had forgotten about as well. Pretty mixed bag really, some who were in the less academic stream had very rich parents and few ambitions, others had parents working abroad whose fees were paid by companies, others were those whose parents were keen on a demominational education or boarding.

n the early 1960s, only 4% of school leavers went to university, rising to around 14% by the end of the 1970s. Nowadays, more than 40% of young people start undergraduate degrees – but it comes at a cost. Today’s students leave with debts of £40,000 and upwards to pay back over their working lives.

From this article: n the early 1960s, only 4% of school leavers went to university, rising to around 14% by the end of the 1970s. Nowadays, more than 40% of young people start undergraduate degrees – but it comes at a cost. Today’s students leave with debts of £40,000 and upwards to pay back over their working lives.

Gah!

Basically very few young people

• took O levels
• took A levels
• went to university.

14% in the 70s. Mostly men. Mostly white.

Most working class people didn't even get a chance to get on the academic route that would result in a university place.

So the 'buying your way into university' began far, far sooner.

If you failed your 11+ and were well off, you could go to a private or public school and stay on the academic track if you were well-off.

Not so much if you were working class.

And most young people left school long before A levels.

Even grammar schools sent most students to apprenticeships and teacher-training colleges.

That was the argument for stopping the student grant at university (which was means-tested by the late 80s). Why should we be subsidising primarily middle-class young people whilst the working class were effectively excluded?

The big change was under Labour, with a whopping 40% of young people going to university.

Personally, I think it's an improvement.

Article: www.theguardian.com/education/2016/jun/24/has-university-life-changed-student-experience-past-present-parents-vox-pops

Lots of girls going into nursing, too.

And clerical work (this is before computers on every desk!)

But loads of those girls were expected to stop work once they had children.

If your parents attended university in the 60s, they were part of a small group.

This is fascinating.

The table for children staying on beyond the statutory leaving age (which was 15 until the early 70s) is particularly interesting.

researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN04252/SN04252.pdf

Basically, the majority of mumsnetter s would not have attended university in the 60s and 70s.

DGf came from a small farm, then on to an academy (Scotland; merit-based then) & university in the late 1920s (!!); DF, DAunt & DUncle all to academy & then uni in the late 1950s/early 1960s. DAunt, though, not allowed to complete honours (extra year) because she was a girl... They all worked through all holidays. DF had a scholarship to study mining engineering that meant he had to work in the coal mines in his university holidays and after a seeing men sitting at the pit head coughing black goop up out of their lungs changed his degree course. I have no idea how costs were covered but they did get a coal allowance that DF supplemented by using a bookshelf as fuel...

Dam went to grammar school, did A-levels and went to teacher training college. Poor family but dgm worked in a skilled role

DM I mean 😊