The UK¡¯s political leaders must address the ¡°deficit of respect¡± between graduates and those without a degree or face more political instability, a former Tory minister has warned.

In an for the Social Market Foundation, Baroness Stowell of Beeston, who was communities minister then leader of the House of Lords in David Cameron¡¯s government,?says that the gaps between graduates and non-graduates is currently the UK¡¯s ¡°biggest social divide¡±.

She points out that academic research shows that education, not class, has become a central dividing line in politics across the Western world.

In the UK, this was most visible in the European Union referendum, where only a quarter of people with a postgraduate degree voted to leave, whereas more than two-thirds of those with no qualifications did so.

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Then in 2019, the Conservatives outperformed Labour by more than two to one among those whose highest qualifications did not exceed GCSE.

¡°The surprising results and disruption we¡¯ve seen via the ballot box in recent years ¨C welcome or otherwise ¨C have been in large part delivered by people with fewer academic credentials.? But they are not the people who don¡¯t understand or who need to change¡±, the former chair of the Charity Commission writes.

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Baroness Stowell, who attended an FE college in Nottingham before becoming a senior BBC executive, writes that the divide must be addressed for Britain to have a ¡°healthy, happy society¡± but ¡°we won¡¯t succeed if we believe the problem is that half the population is insufficiently educated¡±.

¡°When faced with criticism or opposition, many in the political-media class never imagine it is they who haven¡¯t understood the problem,¡± she explains.

The problem is that those with the biggest influence and the main decision-makers on how the UK is run are now almost exclusively graduates, according to Baroness Stowell.

¡°As we have increased accessibility to higher education, obtaining a degree, more than anything else, determines whether people are able to get on, to enter the better-paid, higher-status professions,¡± she writes. This is what determines whether their views are taken seriously, she adds.

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Those without the same educational attainment ¡°find that they and their ¨C legitimate and reasonable ¨C opinions are dismissed. We¡¯re in for a lot more disruption via the ballot box if we don¡¯t stop and reverse this trend,¡± she says.

She says this is demonstrated by the widening gap between graduates and non-graduates in their trust of government, institutions, business leaders and other professionals.

Baroness Stowell writes that the problem can be fixed ¡°but the solutions are less about education and more about attitude¡±.

¡°The answer is not some kind of monoculture where we are all educated to think and be the same.¡±

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To address the problem, she says ¡°graduates and decision-makers¡± must compromise and recognise that knowledge is gained in various ways. This should involve recognising that diversity in educational attainment is a positive aspect and for leaders to promote ¡°social norms¡± that include respecting non-graduates.

This will involve raising the status and authority of jobs that don¡¯t require a degree ¨C such as bus and train drivers, managers of shops and those who provide services, such as delivery drivers and postmen ¨C and paying them better.

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¡°This is not a PR exercise. It¡¯s about bosses and leaders changing behaviours to put right where we¡¯re going wrong,¡± she writes.

anna.mckie@timeshighereducation.com