Elite degree is springboard to success

Lee Elliot Major, chief executive of the Sutton Trust, says that figures were similar in the UK; about 1 per cent of the population attends Oxford or Cambridge, but more than 70 per cent of barristers and judges are drawn from those two universities.

“What’s striking is that the returns of an elite education are getting bigger with every generation,” he said. “Getting that Oxbridge or Ivy League degree means so much more now. It’s astonishing really.”

He said that attending an elite university counted for much more in the US than in the UK. “If you get an elite degree in the US, it really does catapult you into the professional elite,” he said.

“Here, while it clearly helps, it’s not the whole story. If you’re a state-school-educated student, even having a Cambridge degree, you’re still less likely to progress up the professions than your independent-school counterpart.”

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