Retaining a focus on absolute change: a generational shift in the working-class transitions to university in the UK

This article explores the impact of absolute changes in the opportunity structure on the experiences of education and social mobility among working-class students in the UK. Existing approaches to social mobility often overlook absolute changes or adopt limited timeframes, focusing on continuity within change. Based on 28 life-history interviews with working-class students, this study compared three cohorts’ educational trajectories to analyse how absolute shifts in educational and occupational opportunities shape working-class students’ experiences of education and social mobility. The research findings reveal a generational shift in reduced positional advantage of HE attendance, with the shifting meaning of social location for working-class students who attend university in different contexts. By retaining a focus on absolute change, this article challenges the standard working-class narratives of social mobility based on shared class inequality and contributes to a nuanced understanding of the historically contextualised nature of social mobility processes and experiences.