This is the 2nd part of a double symposium which we propose on Elite Education in Europe.  Symposium 1 is proposed by Dr. Joan Forbes.

The last decade has seen a rapid growth of research interest in elite education, leading to new insights into how elite groups are being educated and the role schooling and higher education choices play in maintaining or destabilising the groups considered ‘elite’- be they elite in economic terms, socially, or culturally, amongst others, or elite in different contexts and societies.  While many recent publications have focused on individual countries and the historical and contemporary changes of their elite education system, globalisation and increasing mobility of organisations, workers and therefore families, this symposium will consider how we can undertake comparative analyses of elite education systems across Europe as well as pan-European developments around the education of elites.

Main symposium aim: To what extent does the education of elites involve transnational movement and why is this understood to be important?  What effect does such transnational education of certain groups have on local education systems?

Furthermore, the symposium will explore two further questions:

• How varied or similar are constitutions and processes of elite education across European states?
• What methodological approaches are used to conduct cross-country comparisons on elite education systems and processes?

Four individual papers will be presented, each 20 minutes long (including 5 minutes for questions), and the symposium will be concluded with a 10-minute commentary by the Discussant.  The papers include a comparison of French and English elite tertiary education systems, the ways Swedes are using foreign elite higher education institutions to bolster their accumulation of different forms of capital, the formation of educational systems for educating a group of so-called ‘EU Mandarins’, and a comparative study of Spain and four South American countries, which has facilitated a stronger understanding of how different education systems and parental engagements with these shape who is elite in a particular context.