Former Labour minister Alan Milburn today published the first of three government-commissioned reports looking at how to increase social mobility.

While Mr Milburn will focus specifically on the role of universities in a report to be published next month, today¡¯s study on fair access to professional careers also touches on higher education.

He cites figures on the social exclusivity of the professions: 43 per cent of barristers went to private school, with almost a third graduating from Oxbridge; while 54 per cent of the country¡¯s top journalists went to private school, with a third graduating from Oxbridge.

¡°This is social engineering on a grand scale,¡± writes Mr Milburn.

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He says: ¡°The UK¡¯s leading employers target an average of only 19 universities for their graduate recruitment programmes¡­Since those universities are the most socially exclusive in the country, these recruitment practices merely reinforce the social exclusivity of the professions.¡±

The group of universities from which such employers recruit must be rapidly broadened ¡°if the big growth in professional employment¡­is to produce a social mobility dividend for Britain¡±, Mr Milburn argues.

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Citing figures from the Association of Graduate Recruiters, Mr Milburn adds: ¡°The five universities most often targeted by Britain¡¯s top graduate employers in 2011-12 were Cambridge, London (including Imperial College, University College London and the London School of Economics), Manchester, Nottingham and Oxford.¡±

These institutions ¡°have some of the lowest proportions of students from disadvantaged backgrounds¡±, adds Mr Milburn, citing data on the proportion of entrants from state schools, from the most deprived neighbourhoods and from the most deprived socio-economic groups.

Several of Mr Milburn¡¯s recommendations for fair access to the professions involve a role for universities, including developing schemes for students to mentor school pupils and for the government to ¡°work with universities to develop proposals to integrate a flexible element of professional experience into all higher education courses¡±.

john.morgan@tsleducation.com