ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses whether students who enter university from comprehensive school are drawn from the same social class as the overall university population. It shows that to what extent, if any, the comprehensive school contributed to lessening the social class differences in higher education, and to what extent the creation of the comprehensive school might allow the universities to draw deeper upon hitherto untapped talent—especially children from working-class homes. The chapter examines the patterns of influence of the family and of the school upon the student's decision to go to university. It also shows the effect of comprehensive education upon the question of 'placement', that is the introduction of a person into society at a certain level of occupation. The chapter looks at the parental attitudes and encouragement given to Eleven Plus failures compared with Eleven Plus successes to see whether parental attitude was as important a factor for the Eleven Plus failure as Douglas Holly's study suggested.
