Study says Labor must address leveling-up failures by promoting a strong skills base in weaker economies

If Labor is serious about addressing regional economic inequalities, it must reverse Conservative education policies, specifically the flagship “leveling-up” agenda which did nothing to disrupt the concentration of university graduates in wealthier parts of the country.

This is according to a new paper authored by Professor Michael Donnelly and colleagues from the Department of Education at the University of Bath and published in the journal Contemporary Social Science.

Professor Donnelly and collaborators argue that for all regions to flourish across the U.K., they need a diverse local skills base including a mix of skills and qualifications, and for this to happen, people should be encouraged to go to university as well as into further education. The Conservative leveling-up agenda privileged only further education and was disparaging towards university education.

Professor Donnelly said, “While the term leveling-up was quickly dropped by the new Labor government, the issue of regional inequality remains at the top of the political agenda. If Labor is sincere about wanting to create economic growth and bring greater prosperity to less affluent areas, it needs its university graduates to be spread evenly across the U.K., not just concentrated in London and the South East.”

The new paper finds that 60% of Londoners hold university degrees, compared to 36% of the population in the East Midlands, the North East and Yorkshire.

“Further education colleges, of course, must be part of the picture in creating a diverse and strong local labor supply,” says Professor Donnelly. “They offer courses designed to provide practical skills and knowledge that can lead directly to employment.

“Courses are a lot cheaper to attend than those run by universities, and qualifications—which include BTECs (Business and Technology Education Council courses), NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications) and Foundation Degrees—are often prized by employers.

“However, our research showed that returns to further education courses are lowest in all parts of the country outside of London—mirroring our previous work on returns to higher education.”

The Conservative government was a frequent critic of university education, favoring more vocational training and apprenticeships—key components of further education—in what it claimed to be an attempt to address economic inequalities and improve job readiness. However, the new research provides fresh evidence that this approach both undermined the value of university education and actually helped maintain regional economic divides.

Professor Donnelly argues that by encouraging prospective students to eschew university education, Conservative policies effectively sustained the U.K.’s economic divide instead of addressing regional disparities.

He said, “Our research suggests the leveling-up program was designed to merely maintain the status-quo, with peripheral areas providing labor for wealthier areas.

“University graduates from wealthy areas continue to flock to high-paying, prestigious jobs in London and the South East, while college and apprenticeship graduates remain in their less prosperous hometowns and cities.”

The researchers hope the Labor government will take a radically different approach to education post-A-Levels.

Dr. Jo Davies, also from the Department of Education at Bath, who led the data analysis for the study, said, “While further education and apprenticeships can have immense positive impacts on less prosperous localities, we can’t lose sight of the broader structural inequalities that Keir Starmer’s Labor Government needs to now address.

“Something needs to be done to shift the unequal distribution of graduates in the country, so peripheral places have as many graduates as more prosperous areas to start their own enterprises and bring about economic growth.”

The University of Bath team believes one way to kickstart this shift would be to offer tax breaks to organizations that employ graduates in less prosperous regions. Another would be for universities to prioritize applicants from poorer parts of the country as part of broader contextualized admissions reforms.

Dr. Davies added, “Labor says it is determined to fix the foundations of society and higher education would be an excellent place to start. We need to change things so that your only option, if you want to do well in life, isn’t to flock to London and the South East.”