ABSTRACT
Various reasons have been provided in the literature as to why the lower socioeconomic groups do not engage in higher education as much as could be expected in a self-professed meritocratic society. The Higher Education Funding Council's (for England) (HEFCEs) published data on the link between university intakes and postcodes has demonstrated that those from richer neighbourhoods tend to go to the older, higher status universities and that those from poorer neighbourhoods attend the lower status new universities. Those in the lower socioeconomic groups do not generally have a similar educational vision as their counterparts in the higher socioeconomic groups. Indeed, a progression into further and higher education is often an alien concept for those in the lower socioeconomic groups in society. Despite the expansion of higher education, it is still those mainly in the higher socioeconomic groups who conceptualise a progression from school to higher education and into the professions.
