The university challenge : higher education markets and social stratification

Is the rhetoric of the market in higher education matched by the realities of choice?

In the first comprehensive study of higher education markets and sixth form pupil choice, Lesley Pugsley argues that the annual burst of media-fuelled panic about university entrance leads to a misinformed rhetoric about the purpose and value of higher education.

This is a benchmark study, based on data from the 1997 cohort of students, who were the last to enter higher education under the 'Robbins 1963' banner of free education.

Tracking a group of students throughout their sixth form careers, Pugsley provides a balanced account of the tensions experienced by the students, their parents and their teachers in an increasingly market-orientated higher education society.