Education and Social Mobility

Tue 22 Apr 2025, 17:30 - 18:45

Accessibility
Accessible parking
Online and in person
Wheelchair accessible venue

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Teacher talking to class of primary school children holding up pieces of paper
Venue
Room G.07, Informatics Forum, The University of Edinburgh, 10 Crichton St, Newington, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB
Price
Free

Delivered by the most outstanding academics in the UK and beyond, the British Academy’s flagship Lecture programme showcases the very best scholarship in the humanities and social sciences.

This lecture will explore three key aspects of the question of how education and inequality are related. Firstly, does the education system reduce or worsen existing equalities between students from different backgrounds, and which aspects of education play a role in this process? Secondly, do countries with higher levels of education tend to have greater income inequality? And finally, how can educational policy, if at all, influence inequality among a population? While education is often proposed as a solution to inequality, this talk will offer a more balanced and measured perspective on education’s potential impact.

Professor Richard Breen
Professor Richard Breen

Speaker: Professor Richard Breen, University of Oxford

Richard Breen has published extensively on the role of education in shaping inequality and intergenerational mobility. His publications include Social Mobility in Europe (Oxford University Press, 2004) and Education and Intergenerational Social Mobility in Europe and the United States (Stanford University Press, 2020, co-edited Walter Müller).

Chair: Professor Cristina Iannelli FBA, University of Edinburgh

Free, booking required

This event will take place in person in partnership with the University of Edinburgh. If you have any questions about this event, please email [email protected].

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