How university education divided Britain and helped create the ‘culture wars’

A growing number of political scientists say that education – not social class – is now Britain’s main political divide. Why is this, asks Sunny Hundal

Oxford University students protest against Oriel College’s statue of Cecil Rhodes (Getty)

By the time I was 10 years old, my parents had drummed into me that I would be going to university. I thought it was just the done thing. Clearly, I wasn’t alone in being pushed in that direction. By the time I started at Brunel University in 1997, a large wave of Britons had started that journey too. In the 1960s only around 4 per cent of British school-leavers went to university. This slowly rose to 15 per cent by the 1980s and – after a big push by New Labour – rose to over 50 per cent of all school-leavers by 2021. As Tony Blair famously said: “Education, education, education.”

I think we under-appreciate how the graduate generation transformed Britain – culturally, geographically, politically and economically. Large swathes of this generation grew up with a new outlook on the world, one in favour of liberalism, multiculturalism and globalisation. It now seems to care more about democratic rights while enjoying living in culturally diverse cities, and it wants the right to live and work anywhere.

It wasn’t until the era of Donald Trump and Brexit came along – and challenged this drift – that non-graduates found their voice. Naturally, graduates have started to reorganise in return. Until recently, most graduates voted roughly equally across the political spectrum because all parties advanced their interests. No more.