Family Background and University Success: Differences in Higher Education Access and Outcomes in England

The volume examines why young people from poorer families are less likely to go to university than their counterparts in richer families, the impact of the 2006 and 2012 reforms, who does best at university once they are there, and who succeeds in the labour market following graduation.

Claire Crawford joined the University of Warwick in 2014 as Assistant Professor of Economics. She was previously Programme Director of the Skills sector at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, London, where she remains a Research Fellow. She is managing editor of Fiscal Studies. She holds a PhD from UCL Institute of Education. Her research interests focus on the determinants of educational attainment and participation in higher education. She is particularly interested in how education policy can be used to improve the outcomes of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Lorraine Dearden is Professor of Economics and Social Statistics at UCL Institute of Education and a Research Fellow of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), London. She joined IFS in 1992 as its first PhD scholar, becoming a staff member in 1995. She has a PhD from University College London and also studied at the London School of Economics and Australian National University. Her research focuses on the impact of education and training on labour market outcomes, the demand for schooling, and higher education funding.


John Micklewright is Professor Emeritus at UCL Institute of Education. He has a PhD from the London School of Economics. Before joining UCL, he was Professor of Social Statistics at the University of Southampton. He previously held chairs in Economics at the European University Institute, Florence, and at Queen Mary, University of London. He also worked for several years for the UN in the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre. His research interests cover poverty and inequality, labour market flows, education, charitable giving, and survey methods.

Anna Vignoles is Professor of Education (1938) at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Jesus College, and Trustee of The Nuffield Foundation. She was previously Professor of the Economics of Education at UCL Institute of Education and has been a member of the NHS Pay Review Body and of the ESRC Research Committee. She has a PhD from the University of Newcastle. Her research interests include equity in education, school choice, school efficiency and finance, the economic value of schooling, and participation in higher education.