This chapter investigates the continuing problem of social class in the
age of mass higher education. After a brief overview of the history of
social class in higher education, this chapter maps out the contemporary
landscape by focusing on the statistics, but also looking beyond them.
The main part of the chapter highlights the actual experiences of
working-class students in UK higher education, drawing on data from two
ESRC projects of classed experiences of higher education in the
twenty-first century (Reay et al., 2005(external)(external); Reay et al., 2010(external)(external)).
The massification and democratisation of higher education has led to
the access of far more working-class students, but it has also resulted
in a steeply hierarchical and stratified system, with working-class
students far more likely to attend the low-status, poorly resourced
institutions (Crozier et al., 2008(external)(external); Stich, 2012 external)(external)).