Two MEU member universities have been listed in the top 10 for social mobility by the Higher Education Policy Institute.
The Social Mobility Index 2022 compares the contribution of individual English higher education providers to social mobility.
The new league table highlights the commitment to transforming the lives of students from non-traditional backgrounds of Birmingham City University and Wolverhampton University. BCU was fourth among all English universities in the index, up from 13th place last year. Wolverhampton retained its 2021 position of 10th.
The ranking, published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), evaluates the social mobility impact of different HE institutions across England and is partly based on a similar ranking used to assess institutions in the US.
The methodology behind the league table compares the contribution of higher education providers in England to social mobility by combining ‘the social distance travelled by graduates from an institution with the number of graduates so transported’.
The weightings of the Index were on ‘access’ and the ‘outcomes stages’, while this year Graduate Outcomes data was added as a component, with the access weighting increased to balance the model.
Director of HEPI Nick Hillman said: “Unlike many other league tables, there is huge diversity, as the top 10 includes two former polytechnics (BCU and Wolverhampton), three Russell Group institutions (Queen Mary University of London, Kings College London and London School of Economics) and four former Colleges of Advanced Technology (Bradford, Aston, City and Salford, and an institution that became a full university less than a decade ago (Newman).
“It all confirms that our higher education sector has strength in breadth.”
