What are the educational backgrounds of politicians in the House of Commons? #PoliticsOnTheEdge ๐ฉ
School attendance is not a perfect measure of socio-economic background. But it is information on an MPsโ background that is relatively widely available, and which can give us a crucial insight into the social and economic circumstances they grew up in. Private school attendance, in particular, is strongly related to family income, with attendance rates close to 0% of children at most income levels, and rates only rising above 10% for those in families on the top 5% of incomes. For those who do attend from lower income families, housing wealth often enables their attendance, [1] with just 1% of independent school pupils having their whole fees paid for by bursaries or scholarships, and just 5% having more than half of their fees covered by financial support. [2]
REFERENCES
[1] Anders, Jake & Henseke, Golo (2021). Housing wealth, not bursaries, explains much of private school
participation for those without high income. blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/2021/02/08/housing-wealth-not-
[2] Anon (2024). Independent Schools Council (ISC) Census and Annual Report 2024. www.isc.co.uk/media/uukn4r3i/isc_census_2024_15may24.pdf
via www.suttontrust.com/our-research/parliamentary-privilege-2024
Public domain portrait of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester at Eton in 1914 adapted from an original on Wikimedia Commons w.wiki/AbmH
What are the educational backgrounds of politicians in the House of Commons? #PoliticsOnTheEdge ๐ฉ
School attendance is not a perfect measure of socio-economic background. But it is information on an MPsโ background that is relatively widely available, and which can give us a crucial insight into the social and economic circumstances they grew up in. Private school attendance, in particular, is strongly related to family income, with attendance rates close to 0% of children at most income levels, and rates only rising above 10% for those in families on the top 5% of incomes. For those who do attend from lower income families, housing wealth often enables their attendance, [1] with just 1% of independent school pupils having their whole fees paid for by bursaries or scholarships, and just 5% having more than half of their fees covered by financial support. [2]
REFERENCES
[1] Anders, Jake & Henseke, Golo (2021). Housing wealth, not bursaries, explains much of private school
participation for those without high income. blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/2021/02/08/housing-wealth-not-
[2] Anon (2024). Independent Schools Council (ISC) Census and Annual Report 2024. www.isc.co.uk/media/uukn4r3i/isc_census_2024_15may24.pdf
via www.suttontrust.com/our-research/parliamentary-privilege-2024
Public domain portrait of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester at Eton in 1914 adapted from an original on Wikimedia Commons w.wiki/AbmH