Breadth of study at secondary school and the attainment and progression of university graduates in Scotland, 1960–2002

Abstract

The relationship between the breadth of the curriculum which university students followed at secondary school and their degree attainment or their entry to employment is studied using a series of surveys of graduates from Scottish universities between 1960 and 2002. The relationship of the school curriculum to the later experience of students who entered university has not been extensively studied. Scotland is a useful case study for this purpose because breadth of study at school was a core feature of school-leaving assessment from the origins of modern secondary schooling in the early twentieth century until the end of the century. Breadth of learning was also a principle of the dominant university tradition in Scotland from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. The conclusion of the analysis is that breadth was associated with propensity to enter professions rather than managerial occupations, and to avoiding low-status occupations. But also, for students with relatively moderate or low attainment from school, breadth was associated with a lower chance of gaining the highest attainment at university.