Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Wednesday, March 02, 2016

How to succeed in business, politics, medicine, arts, and the military in the UK

Looking at the generalization about recruitment in the UK that's in your textbook is only the beginning of seeing the statistics behind the generalization.

Glossary:

"Oxbridge" refers to Oxford and Cambridge, the two most prestigious universities in the UK.
"fee-paying school" is a school to which students (or their parents) pay tuition, i.e. a private school
"independent school" is another name for fee-paying school
"grammar school" is a public school which admits only those students who, at age 11, earn high scores on admissions tests

Privately educated 'still dominate professions'

[T]he Sutton Trust says… says professions like politics and the law continue to be dominated by privately educated Oxbridge graduates.

St. Edmund Hall, Oxford

The Trust said a child's chances of reaching the top still came down to their schooling and contacts…

Researchers for the Trust, which campaigns for greater social mobility, looked at the educational backgrounds of more than 1,200 people, working in high positions in medicine, the law, the military, journalism, politics, the civil service, business, film and pop music…

The report - Leading People 2016 - found that… three-quarters (74%) of the UK's top judges went to a fee-paying school, and nearly eight in 10 (78%) went on to Oxford or Cambridge University.

Among top military personnel, some seven in 10 (71%) were educated in the private sector, although just 14% were Oxbridge educated.

Slightly more than half of leading print journalists and solicitors (51% each) attended fee-paying schools.

Just over half (54%) of these journalists attended Oxford or Cambridge, along with 55% of solicitors and 51% of the senior civil servants included in the study.

In politics, half the Cabinet were privately educated (including old Etonian Prime Minister David Cameron) compared with 13% of the shadow cabinet, and around a third (32%) of MPs…

The trust said that of the country's top doctors, 61% were educated at independent schools, nearly one-quarter at grammar schools (22%) and the remainder (16%) at comprehensives.

The private school sector educates 7% of the population…

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Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6, and a description of the AP exam format. $2.00. Order HERE.