The extent to which education systems should select students for particular types of education and/or institutions is a recurrent theme in political debate across many European countries. It has also been an important focus of the sociological literature. Scholars have sought, for example, to assess the impact of selection – at different points in the education system – on social mobility and processes of social reproduction. In this symposium, we showcase four contemporary studies of selection in different parts of Europe (England, Spain, France and Denmark) and across both the school and higher education sectors.

Sociological studies of school-level education have typically indicated that early selection into different ‘tracks’ or types of school can have a negative impact on social mobility, with those from lower income families typically over-represented in lower status forms of schooling, from which progression to higher education and well-paid employment is often more difficult (e.g. Berends, 2015; Wells et al., 1999; West, 2014).  Moreover, they have shown that ‘school choice’ policies, often popular with politicians in some European nations, typically advantage the middle classes, who have more cultural, social and economic capital to draw upon when making their decisions (e.g. Bunar, 2010; Butler and Hamnett, 2012). The first two papers in this symposium extend further debates about selection within the school sector. Drawing on evidence from England, the first paper explores whether a school system can ever promote excellence without also promoting elitism. The second examines tracking in the upper secondary sector in Spain, considering the extent to which being selected into either an academic or vocational track impacts on both social inequality and the subjectivities of individual students.

With respect to higher education, extant research has demonstrated that, across Europe, higher education has, historically, excluded many social groups – particularly those from low-income families, without parental experience of higher education, from particular ethnic backgrounds, and who are older than average (e.g. Thomsen, 2023). Moreover, even when such students secure access to higher education, they can often feel ‘out-of-place’ and excluded from practices both within and outside of the classroom (e.g. Gregersen and Nielsen, 2022). Over recent decades, the higher education sectors in many European countries have massified, student populations have become increasingly diverse, and attempts have been made – in some nations at least – to better support applicants from under-represented groups (Harrison, 2019). Nevertheless, there is evidence that entry to highly selective universities has not diversified to the same degree (e.g. Boliver, 2013). Building on this body of work, the third and fourth papers in this symposium consider contemporary evidence about higher education selectivity. The third examines contextualised admission policies that have been put in place to widen participation to a selective French institution. It assesses the efficacy of such initiatives by drawing on the narratives of applicants, as well as those of higher education staff involved in assessing their applications. The final paper draws on data from a selective degree programme in Denmark to examine the ways in which gender interacts with both social class and academic attainment in the formation of social and symbolic boundaries.

This symposium has been organised by the executive editors of the British Journal of Sociology of Education. The chair of the executive editors will chair this symposium, and another executive editor will act as discussant. In addition, two of the four presenters are members of the journal’s editorial board.

Berends, M. (2015) Sociology and school choice: what we know after two decades of charter schools, Annual Review of Sociology, 41, 159-80. Boliver, V. (2013). How fair is access to more prestigious UK Universities? British Journal of Sociology 64, 2, 344-364. Bunar, N. (2010) Choosing for quality or inequality: current perspectives on the implementation of school choice policy in Sweden, Journal of Education Policy, 25, 1, 1-18. Butler, T. and Hamnett, C. (2012) Praying for success? Faith schools and school choice in east London, Geoforum, 43, 1242-1253. Harrison, N. (2019) ‘Students-as-insurers: rethinking ‘risk’ for disadvantaged young people considering higher education in England’, Journal of Youth Studies, 22, 6, 752-771. Gregersen, A. and Nielsen, K. (2022) Not quite the ideal student: mature students’ experiences of higher education, International Studies in the Sociology of Education (advance online access). Thomsen, J.P. (2012) Exploring the heterogeneity of class in higher education: social and cultural differentiation in Danish university programmes, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 33, 4, 565-585. Wells, A.S., Lopez, A., Scott, J. and Holme, J. (1999) Charter schools as postmodern paradox: rethinking social stratification in an age of deregulated school choice, Harvard Educational Review, 69, 2, 172-204. West, A. (2014) Academies in England and independent schools (fristående skolor) in Sweden: policy, privatisation, access and segregation, Research Papers in Education, 29, 3, 330-350.