Abstract
ABSTRACT Considerable attention has been paid to the economic benefits of participating in higher education, particularly the ‘economic premium’ of graduates compared to non-graduates. Although the civic contribution of graduates has been widely acknowledged and discussed, there has been a dearth of empirical analysis that investigates this contribution. Furthermore, the massification of higher education in the UK, US, and many other countries, has had profound impacts on the higher education experience. But little is known about how changes to the form and function of mass higher education have impacted on the civic contribution of university graduates. This research attempts to address this by focussing specifically on associational membership of university graduates during their early adulthood. By calculating the ‘civic premium’ of UK graduates compared to their non-graduate peers over time we are able explore the relationship between associational membership and higher education participation following the massification of UK higher education.
Highlights
The nature of higher education in the UK and in most other Western countries has changed considerably in the last sixty years (Altbach, Reisberg, and Rumbley 2009)
We attempt to answer two important questions: (1) what is the relationship between civic participation and higher education participation and (2) has this relationship changed with the massification of higher education? In order to answer these questions we attempt to measure the ‘civic premium’ of university graduates – the difference between graduates and non-graduates – and at two different time periods – the first representing an era of elite higher education, and the second representing an era of mass higher education
To reiterate, the two central questions addressed in this paper were (1) what is the relationship between associational membership and higher education participation and (2) has this relationship changed with the massification of higher education?
Summary
The nature of higher education in the UK and in most other Western countries has changed considerably in the last sixty years (Altbach, Reisberg, and Rumbley 2009). In the UK there have been two important official attempts to formalise the functions of higher education over this time period (Robbins 1963; Dearing 1997). Both recognised a broad set of functions for higher education, reflecting economic and social functions for both individuals in receipt of higher education and the rest of society. The bi-dimensional nature of these descriptions was helpfully summarised by Brennan, Durazzi, and Séné (2013) in their more recent review of the wider benefits of higher education for the UK Government (Figure 1)
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