What if… we really wanted to further social mobility through education?
31 October 2017, 5:30 pm–6:45 pm

Boosting social mobility has been the rallying cry for Left and Right of late, with education highlighted as key to opening up life chances.
Event Information
Open to
- All
Organiser
-
IOE Events
Location
-
Clarke HallUCL Institute of Education20 Bedford WayLondonWC1H 0ALUnited Kingdom
It's a cause that's generated reams of policy wonkery, as well as a far-reaching education reforms - most recently the drive to provide 'powerful knowledge' for all in schools, through to the removal of the cap on university student numbers.
But is any of this really going to bring about the meritocracy that many say we should aspire to, and any time soon? What if we wanted quicker results?
Speakers
- Kate Pickett, Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of York; co-author, 'The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone'.
- Lord David Willetts, the Executive Chair of the Resolution Foundation
- Diane Reay, Professor of Education at Cambridge University
- James Croft, Chair of the Centre for Education Economics (CfEE)
- Chair: Professor Becky Francis, Director of the UCL Institute of Education (IOE)
The IOE Public Debates: What if… series
Through this series, we'll be bringing together a range of commentators - academics, politicians, practitioners, policy wonks - and pushing them to bring some radical new thinking to some of the apparently intractable issues within education, not least the English education system.
Join the conversation on Twitter at #IOEDebates.
Links
- TES: Professor Diane Reay on social mobility (or downloadable PDF, 0.2MB)
- TES: Lord David Willetts on social mobility (or downloadable PDF, 0.2MB)
- IOE Blog: Education and social mobility - the missing link, or red herring?
- The IOE Public Debates series
- Next debate: What if… we really wanted to overcome the academic-vocational divide?
Image: Didier Adam (CC BY-NC 2.0)
