Working-class people in UK higher education (UKHE) have historically been viewed through the lens of deficit (Crew, 2024), amid a shifting and transient understanding of what it means to be working class as an identity in the United Kingdom (Pilgrim-Brown, 2023). Often conceived as a social class relationship associated with a type of employment or work (usually manual, skilled or unskilled labour or similar), the construct of working class has also been associated with economic factors, poverty and deprivation, dispositions of taste and culture, and, within a university context, first-generation students (Pilgrim-Brown, 2023).

Research in the field, which has often been impactful, insightful and illuminating, has understandably sought to examine and analyse the marginalisation of working-class people within the academy. However, the substantial contribution of this literature has simultaneously examined the experiences of those from working-class backgrounds through the prism of what they lack, when compared to the ‘normative’ experiences of more traditional groups within higher education institutions (HEIs). By applying theoretical perspectives such as Bourdieu, researchers have framed working-class people as different from others (who occupy a privileged class status) within institutions, through generalised impressions of how they are perceived. This includes factors such as how they dress, how they speak and how they liaise with others from the basis of often extremely different life experiences and lived realities (Reay et al., 2009).

‘Recognising and valuing diversity in its many guises and facets is central to developing a flourishing, thriving university and higher education space.’

Recognising and valuing diversity in its many guises and facets is central to developing a flourishing, thriving university and higher education space. Diverse communities bring innovation, creativity, research impact and the potential to create transformation in universities. However, while moral and legal imperatives (such as the Equality Act 2010 and Athena Swan, Disability Confident and Race Equality Charter) aim to ensure that other characteristics are protected and monitored within UKHE, class and socioeconomic status largely remain outside what is measured and reported. This comes despite the difficulties we know exist for working-class people, based on the plethora of research in this space. While social class is, arguably, difficult to define in the UK in 2025 (see Pilgrim-Brown, 2023), the isolation many from working-class backgrounds face within UKHE continues to be a pronounced and volatile issue (Attridge, 2021; Crew, 2024; Pilgrim-Brown, 2025).

This BERA Blog special issue draws directly from our upcoming edited book collection Working-class people in UK higher education: Precarities, perspectives and progress (Pilgrim-Brown et al., Forthcoming), and in doing so draws deliberately on the intersections between social class, other protected characteristics, and the many different career stages and roles that are represented both by the book, and within this special issue. At a time when UK higher education faces increasing scrutiny over inclusion and relevance, this special issue demonstrates how working-class voices can drive institutional transformation, offering practical solutions to harnessing working-class perspectives as catalysts for positive change.

Reflecting these diverse perspectives, this special issue explores the many different experiences of working-class people across UK academia. In particular, the issue highlights examples of intersectional research with working-class disabled people in the UK, making a challenge to the regulative ‘centre’ of the academy through this contemplation (Wilde and Fish); and Givans explores the possibilities for systemic institutional change through amplifying the voices of Black working-class women. In their posts, both Penn and Gascoigne and Ria-Rowell explore how integrating working-class perspectives can create innovation in pedagogy and teaching practice. These perspectives are further examined in discipline-specific contexts by Price (Sciences) and Holmes-Henderson, Canevaro and Canevaro (Classics).

Much literature, as we have identified, currently focuses on what working-class people ‘lack’ due to the dislocation of cultural and social norms between the academy and working-class communities. This deficit narrative is contended in the contributions from both Mottershaw and O’Connor and McLoughlin, where they champion the celebration of ‘otherness’, dismantling the negative connotations of imposter syndrome. Focusing on a relatively understudied group, White further reflects on professional services and administrative staff from working-class backgrounds, while Crew emphasises the cultural wealth and diverse forms of capital that working-class academics bring to higher education.

Against a backdrop of continued challenges, this special issue seeks to flip the narrative on the position of working-class people (specifically in England, Wales and Scotland) in relation to UKHE. Rather than framing the construct of ‘working-class’ through a deficit lens, we instead focus on a range of diverse perspectives and intersectional understandings. We showcase research which seeks to underline and emphasise the novel, insightful and brilliant ways working-class people contribute to UKHE. We do so to reimagine a space in which working-class people are actively contributing but also active participants in the landscape of HE. In this reimagined space, working-class people would be celebrated for their ability to relate to students, diversify teaching and research objectives, and advance widening participation.

References

Attridge, É. (2021). Understanding and managing identity: Working-class students at the University of Oxford. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 45(10), 1438–1453. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2021.1985979

Crew, T. (2024). Working-class academics: Challenging deficit narratives through cultural wealth. Journal of Working-Class Studies, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.13001/jwcs.v9i2.9237

Pilgrim-Brown, J. (2023). What does it mean to be working class? Exploring the definition of a social class identity through the eyes of working-class professional services and administrative staff in Russell Group universities. Journal of Working-Class Studies, 8(2), 51–68. https://doi.org/10.13001/jwcs.v8i2.8401

Pilgrim-Brown, J. (2025). ‘Helping academics shine’: An exploration into the relationships working-class professional services staff have with others in UK higher education. Higher Education, 90, 387–405. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-024-01328-5

Pilgrim-Brown, J., Crew, T., & Attridge, E. (Eds.). (Forthcoming). Working-class people in UK higher education: Precarities, perspectives and progress. Emerald Publishing.

Reay, D., Crozier, G., & Clayton, J. (2009). ‘Strangers in paradise’? Working-class students in elite universities. Sociology, 43(6), 1103–1121. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038509345700