Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/98983 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 8255
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The Further and Higher Education Act of 1992 changed the Higher Education system in the UK by giving all polytechnics university status. Using the British Household Panel Survey and accounting for different sources of selection bias, we show that wage differentials between university and polytechnic graduates can be explained by a glass ceiling preventing polytechnic graduates from reaching professional occupations. After the reform, the glass ceiling disappeared and average wages of post-reform polytechnic graduates are not statistically different from average wages of post-reform graduates of traditional universities any more. This implies that the abolition of the 'two-tier' education system has reduced inequality among Higher Education graduates – a result that may be desirable in other systems of a 'two-tier' nature.
Subjects: 
higher education
education reform
wage differentials
occupational sorting
United Kingdom
JEL: 
I23
J31
J64
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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