Has Oxbridge always been the key channel of elite formation in Britain?

Oxbridge and Cambridge universities have long been considered the key educational channel of elite recruitment in the UK. In this paper we draw on a unique data set - 130 years of biographical data in Who’s Who, a unique catalogue of the British elite – to empirically interrogate this assumption. We find that Oxbridge has indeed had a longstanding stranglehold over elite formation in the UK, but its power has also waxed and waned. We show that its relative power declined significantly among those born in 1920s, 30s and 40s, at the same time as London elite universities began to become more powerful. However, significantly, we also show that Oxbridge has actually enjoyed a resurgence in propulsive power in recent decades, even as the social composition of Oxbridge has changed. Finally, we also show that Oxbridge do not function as elite switchboards in the same way for all students; those who enter from elite private schools have historically been more likely to reach elite positions as other students.

Aaron Reeves is a Professor of Sociology and Social Policy in the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at Oxford University, a Fellow of Green Templeton College, and a Visiting Senior Fellow in the International Inequalities Institute at the LSE. He is a sociologist working on public health, political economy, and elites.

Sam Friedman is Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics. He has published widely on class, culture and social mobility, and recently co-authored The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Privileged. He is also the author of Comedy and Distinction: The Cultural Currency of a ‘Good’ Sense of Humour and co-author of Social Class in the 21st Century. He is currently working on a new book (with Aaron Reeves) looking at the historical development of the British elite, drawing on the entire 125-year database of Who's Who.