Elitist Britain, a study published by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission in August 20144 , examined the educational backgrounds of those in the top positions in British society. It concluded that there was “dramatic over-representation of those educated at independent schools and Oxbridge across the institutions that have such a profound influence on what happens in our country”.
This raises the question of whether the domination of the top of British society by those from advantaged social backgrounds is replicated in Scotland or not. In a speech in Edinburgh in November 2014, the Rt. Hon. Alan Milburn – Chair of the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission – suggested that it is: “It is hard to avoid Sir John Major’s conclusion that there remains a closed shop at the top of British society. Nor is Scotland exempt from such elitism. Almost half of senior Scottish judges were educated in private schools compared to just 5 per cent of the population as a whole and the country’s top universities remain dominated by students from better-off backgrounds”
The current study identified 846 individuals in Scotland who are at the top of key sectors of Scottish society – politics, the public sector, the media, and business – and sought to collect data about what type of secondary school they went to, whether they entered higher education and, if they did, what university they went to.
The aim is to repeat part of the Elitist Britain study, developing an initial sense of the landscape of key sectors of society in Scotland and trying to answer two key questions:
- Is there an Elitist Scotland?
- If there is, is it the same elite as identified in Elitist Britain, or one that is different in character?