Sullivan, Alice;
Parsons, Samantha;
Green, Francis;
Wiggins, Richard D;
Ploubidis, George;
(2018)
Elite universities, fields of study and top salaries: Which degree will make you rich?
British Educational Research Journal
, 44
(4)
pp. 663-680.
10.1002/berj.3453.
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Abstract
This article assesses the chances of entering the top 5% of earners for a British cohort currently in their 40s. We assess the difference made by a university degree from an elite (Russell Group) or non‐elite university, and from different undergraduate fields of study. Our study uses rich longitudinal data from the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70). This allows us to control for an unusually large range of potential confounding factors, including childhood socio‐economic circumstances, cognitive scores, secondary schooling and prior qualifications. We find that large raw differences in the chances of achieving a top salary are strongly attenuated by our controls, but substantial differences between degree subject areas remain. The large gap between men and women in the chance of gaining a top salary is not explained by the type of degree achieved, and we found no evidence of gender differences in the gains from institutional prestige or particular fields of study.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Elite universities, fields of study and top salaries: Which degree will make you rich? |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1002/berj.3453 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3453 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2018 The Authors. British Educational Research Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Educational Research Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | higher education, field of study, gender, income, longitudinal |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10051172 |
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