0:00:10.476,0:00:12.836
So do you think life is fair?

0:00:13.998,0:00:17.060
Well, in my lifetime,[br]I've clung on to the hope

0:00:17.060,0:00:20.946
that we enable all people irrespective[br]of their backgrounds to get on in life,

0:00:21.519,0:00:24.342
and that education would be[br]the great social leveler.

0:00:25.364,0:00:29.398
Your university and school grades[br]matter more than ever before,

0:00:30.021,0:00:34.080
and an "A" is always better[br]than a "B" or a "C," right?

0:00:36.239,0:00:37.930
I used to think about these issues

0:00:37.930,0:00:40.400
when cleaning the streets[br]of London as a teenager.

0:00:40.540,0:00:42.260
My mom worked at the local council.

0:00:42.260,0:00:45.401
She got me a job;[br]she said she could open doors.

0:00:46.169,0:00:48.592
I hadn't realized it was doors[br]to a dustbin lorry,

0:00:48.592,0:00:50.050
(Laughter)

0:00:50.050,0:00:53.516
but I was proud[br]to be a dustman for a summer.

0:00:53.516,0:00:56.909
And I earned extra money street cleaning,

0:00:56.909,0:01:01.280
and to this day, I can't resist[br]tying up bin bags in a certain way.

0:01:02.210,0:01:05.130
And I pick up litter[br]when I walk down the street.

0:01:05.420,0:01:07.280
I couldn't resist telling this story

0:01:07.280,0:01:10.704
when I wrote a newspaper article[br]a couple of years ago.

0:01:12.290,0:01:16.471
It was all about how my life[br]had been transformed by education.

0:01:16.669,0:01:19.350
My mom and dad split up when I was 15.

0:01:19.350,0:01:23.324
I ended up sleeping on my own,[br]not going to lessons at school.

0:01:23.670,0:01:26.160
My prospects were pretty[br]bleak at that point.

0:01:27.438,0:01:30.150
To be honest, the biggest reaction[br]I got in the articles

0:01:30.150,0:01:31.710
was the 1980s haircut.

0:01:31.710,0:01:32.715
(Laughter)

0:01:32.715,0:01:35.455
The bleached blonde hair,[br]the earrings, the eyeliner.

0:01:35.455,0:01:36.585
(Laughter)

0:01:36.692,0:01:39.810
And I'm damned now[br]because whatever my children wear,

0:01:40.200,0:01:42.500
I wore something worse in the 1980s.

0:01:42.500,0:01:43.530
(Laughter)

0:01:44.259,0:01:45.940
But despite my shocking looks,

0:01:45.940,0:01:47.797
my life did turn around.

0:01:47.800,0:01:50.420
And this was mainly[br]due to family and friends.

0:01:50.420,0:01:53.110
My best friend encouraged me[br]to go back to college,

0:01:53.314,0:01:55.554
his mum and dad took me in,

0:01:55.554,0:01:58.414
an uncle paid for me[br]to go through university.

0:01:59.508,0:02:02.199
You know, when you look[br]at individual success,

0:02:02.199,0:02:05.960
usually it's a product[br]of collective endeavor.

0:02:06.831,0:02:08.594
We should never forget that.

0:02:09.689,0:02:11.237
So I went back to school,

0:02:11.887,0:02:15.162
and I eventually studied[br]for a PhD in theoretical physics,

0:02:15.997,0:02:18.130
something I don't mention at parties much

0:02:18.130,0:02:19.870
because it stops conversation dead.

0:02:20.831,0:02:23.320
I became a reporter[br]on a national newspaper.

0:02:23.570,0:02:26.430
I was Chief Executive[br]of the Sutton Trust charity,

0:02:26.430,0:02:29.479
one of the leading education[br]foundations in the country,

0:02:29.945,0:02:31.551
and a published author.

0:02:31.651,0:02:35.630
And I'm now the very first[br]professor of social mobility.

0:02:35.760,0:02:38.770
My mum would have been very proud[br]if she'd still been around.

0:02:39.964,0:02:44.220
So I've used this story to try[br]and inspire other young people,

0:02:44.580,0:02:47.000
to show them that backgrounds[br]shouldn't determine

0:02:47.000,0:02:48.348
what happens to you in life.

0:02:49.370,0:02:53.220
But the harsh truth is that someone[br]like me from my background

0:02:53.220,0:02:57.296
stands less of a chance of climbing[br]the social ladder now than in my day.

0:02:58.610,0:03:02.640
We observe an escalating[br]arms race of education,

0:03:02.818,0:03:06.710
one in which the rich commandeer[br]increasingly powerful weaponry

0:03:06.710,0:03:08.313
to get their children ahead,

0:03:08.581,0:03:10.912
and the poor are ill-equipped to fight.

0:03:11.980,0:03:14.310
Take private tutoring, for example.

0:03:14.740,0:03:17.821
There has been a boom[br]in tutoring outside the classroom

0:03:17.821,0:03:20.419
over the last 20 years[br]in England and Wales.

0:03:21.174,0:03:24.970
In 2005, 18 percent of teenagers

0:03:24.970,0:03:28.516
said they have been tutored[br]outside a normal school day.

0:03:29.138,0:03:33.030
In 2017, that had risen[br]to one in three teenagers.

0:03:34.090,0:03:37.330
And who are the customers[br]in this billion-pound marketplace?

0:03:38.790,0:03:41.120
Well, it's the children[br]of the privileged classes.

0:03:43.289,0:03:47.900
Dig beneath the veneer of an orderly[br]and respectful British society,

0:03:47.900,0:03:50.500
and you will find a very different story.

0:03:52.066,0:03:55.973
Many parents will admit[br]to cheating in school admissions,

0:03:56.830,0:04:00.020
renting a property near the school[br]so their children get ahead.

0:04:01.273,0:04:04.270
The Times newspaper[br]had an investigation that showed

0:04:04.270,0:04:08.631
that thousands of parents are now claiming[br]medical conditions for their children

0:04:08.650,0:04:10.750
so they can get to the front of the queue.

0:04:11.015,0:04:12.670
And just like false addresses,

0:04:12.670,0:04:16.920
these conditions mysteriously[br]disappear the following term.

0:04:17.380,0:04:19.570
This goes to a whole different level

0:04:19.570,0:04:22.309
when it comes to getting[br]into the best universities.

0:04:23.901,0:04:25.850
You may have seen last month

0:04:25.850,0:04:29.556
the news of the biggest scandal[br]in U.S. college admissions history.

0:04:29.603,0:04:32.280
Hollywood actors[br]were among the rich parents

0:04:32.280,0:04:37.620
who had paid a shady organization[br]to bribe admissions tutors,

0:04:37.620,0:04:40.820
to pay other people[br]to take their children's tests,

0:04:40.820,0:04:44.268
to even fabricate athletic prowess.

0:04:44.913,0:04:47.689
Now, I'm not suggesting[br]that this blatant cheating

0:04:47.689,0:04:49.799
is widespread in higher education.

0:04:50.404,0:04:52.061
But how different is it

0:04:52.808,0:04:55.386
to all the advantages[br]the middle classes have?

0:04:55.506,0:04:59.485
The extra tutoring,[br]the insider information, the contacts.

0:05:00.365,0:05:04.220
All these things are crucial[br]to gaining that competitive edge.

0:05:05.878,0:05:08.780
And a US attorney summed it up very well.

0:05:09.359,0:05:12.066
For every winner, there has to be a loser.

0:05:13.309,0:05:16.435
And in the toxic mix[br]of education and money,

0:05:16.439,0:05:17.885
[Winners and losers]

0:05:17.886,0:05:20.489
a zero-sum game of social mobility,

0:05:20.489,0:05:22.997
there has to be a loser for every winner.

0:05:25.451,0:05:28.513
Far from acting as a great social leveler,

0:05:28.800,0:05:30.839
the education system[br]has become the vehicle

0:05:30.839,0:05:35.470
through which the elites retain[br]their position in society.

0:05:36.622,0:05:40.481
And you can see this in expansion[br]of universities in Britain.

0:05:41.839,0:05:43.482
Over the last 40 years,

0:05:43.799,0:05:47.579
the graduation rate of those[br]from the poorest fifth of homes

0:05:47.579,0:05:48.655
has gone up.

0:05:49.609,0:05:52.910
But the graduation rate[br]of those from the richest homes

0:05:52.910,0:05:54.464
has gone up even more.

0:05:55.356,0:05:56.361
In other words,

0:05:56.361,0:05:58.780
the graduation gap has increased.

0:05:59.625,0:06:03.479
The expansion of universities[br]has been mainly a middle-class affair.

0:06:05.779,0:06:09.510
So do you still think[br]an "A" is better than a "B" or a "C"?

0:06:10.441,0:06:11.490
But what we know

0:06:11.490,0:06:15.359
is that A Levels are increasingly[br]a signal of how much support you get

0:06:15.612,0:06:18.789
as much as your academic[br]potential or natural ability.

0:06:19.019,0:06:20.694
How else can we explain

0:06:21.005,0:06:23.580
that state school students[br]with the same A Level grades

0:06:23.580,0:06:25.427
as theeir privately educated peers

0:06:25.580,0:06:28.948
get better degrees[br]on average at university?

0:06:31.250,0:06:33.519
Now, I'm not blaming the parents here.

0:06:33.519,0:06:36.779
I'm a parent. I've paid[br]for tutoring for my children.

0:06:36.969,0:06:39.949
We all want the best[br]for our sons and daughters.

0:06:40.656,0:06:44.939
But I believe we've reached[br]a dangerous tipping point in society.

0:06:45.317,0:06:47.909
Inequality has widened in my lifetime,

0:06:47.909,0:06:50.049
and the rich have pulled away,

0:06:50.249,0:06:53.669
and the arms race has become[br]an even more one-sided affair.

0:06:54.430,0:06:57.711
It's little surprise[br]that social mobility has fallen.

0:06:59.356,0:07:00.637
And what we find

0:07:00.654,0:07:03.429
is that there is an inextricable link[br]between inequality,

0:07:03.429,0:07:05.335
the gaps between rich and poor,

0:07:05.565,0:07:09.137
and social mobility, the likelihood[br]of climbing the social ladder.

0:07:09.887,0:07:11.292
You can see this

0:07:11.311,0:07:13.070
in the international comparisons.

0:07:13.930,0:07:16.649
Here on this graph of several countries,

0:07:16.649,0:07:20.259
the higher up on this graph,[br]the less mobile the country is.

0:07:20.279,0:07:23.531
The more to the right,[br]the more unequal that country is.

0:07:24.629,0:07:28.563
Britain and the United States[br]are in the worst position of all:

0:07:29.234,0:07:32.577
high inequality and low social mobility.

0:07:34.240,0:07:37.573
What's really interesting[br]about these international comparisons

0:07:37.575,0:07:39.988
is countries like Britain and the U.S.,

0:07:39.988,0:07:44.099
who have embraced the very individualistic[br]notion of the American Dream,

0:07:44.099,0:07:45.799
have low social mobility,

0:07:46.204,0:07:49.789
and those countries,[br]like the Scandinavian nations,

0:07:49.799,0:07:52.272
who have prioritized[br]collective responsibility

0:07:52.282,0:07:55.690
over individual gain,[br]have higher social mobility rates.

0:07:57.705,0:07:59.159
In the Scandinavian countries,

0:07:59.159,0:08:01.209
they don't talk about the American Dream,

0:08:01.209,0:08:03.216
they talk about the Law of Jante:

0:08:04.004,0:08:06.779
putting society first[br]before the individual.

0:08:07.219,0:08:11.129
In this country, we're haunted[br]by the words of Margaret Thatcher

0:08:11.129,0:08:13.649
that there is no such thing as society.

0:08:16.023,0:08:17.774
So why should all this matter?

0:08:18.722,0:08:22.050
Well, for one, it highlights[br]an appalling waste of talent:

0:08:23.975,0:08:28.545
millions of lives in this country[br]whose potential goes unfulfilled.

0:08:29.192,0:08:32.079
And quite frankly, more of us[br]are getting fed up with it.

0:08:32.944,0:08:35.375
We may be a class-ridden society,

0:08:36.270,0:08:40.128
but in Britain, the biggest gripe[br]is not playing by the rules.

0:08:41.904,0:08:43.888
We're sick of the same people at the top.

0:08:44.588,0:08:48.539
Every Prime Minister since the war[br]who studied at an English university

0:08:48.547,0:08:51.760
went to one institution: Oxford.

0:08:53.160,0:08:57.929
And one school, Eton College,[br]has produced 19 Prime Ministers.

0:08:59.065,0:09:02.860
Around 50 to 60 percent of leading people

0:09:02.860,0:09:04.340
across a range of professions,

0:09:04.340,0:09:07.581
from medicine to law,[br]politics, journalism,

0:09:07.581,0:09:09.282
attended private schools.

0:09:10.017,0:09:13.449
But only 7 percent of children[br]attend those schools.

0:09:14.248,0:09:18.329
We've created a disconnected[br]and dysfunctional elite.

0:09:19.056,0:09:20.645
I know this firsthand;

0:09:20.645,0:09:22.950
I've been in to number 10 Downing Street,

0:09:22.950,0:09:25.850
and I'm pretty sure[br]I was the only man in the room

0:09:25.850,0:09:28.050
who had slept on a train station floor,

0:09:28.050,0:09:30.219
who had been threatened with a knife,

0:09:30.219,0:09:32.130
certainly who'd worn eyeliner -

0:09:32.130,0:09:33.130
(Laughter)

0:09:33.130,0:09:34.260
maybe not.

0:09:35.000,0:09:37.689
There's a distinct lack[br]of diversity at the top.

0:09:37.817,0:09:40.550
And that matters because people[br]from different backgrounds

0:09:40.550,0:09:43.120
bring different perspectives,[br]different views.

0:09:43.370,0:09:45.820
They improve decision-making.

0:09:46.040,0:09:47.037
They understand

0:09:47.037,0:09:50.185
the distinctively different communities[br]they're intended to serve.

0:09:51.564,0:09:57.430
Low social mobility has created[br]a populist and divisive politics.

0:09:57.948,0:09:59.212
Ring any bells?

0:09:59.550,0:10:01.269
And a fractured society.

0:10:02.033,0:10:03.375
And I believe

0:10:03.375,0:10:05.594
that we're heading to a car crash,

0:10:05.594,0:10:08.170
that there will be social unrest.

0:10:10.026,0:10:11.399
So what should we do?

0:10:12.257,0:10:13.499
Well, I do think we need

0:10:13.499,0:10:16.048
an education system[br]that nurtures all talents,

0:10:16.050,0:10:21.089
not just academic, but entrepreneurial,[br]vocational, creative.

0:10:21.748,0:10:23.605
University is not for everyone.

0:10:24.940,0:10:27.000
But if you're serious[br]about social mobility,

0:10:27.000,0:10:29.840
you would also tackle[br]the extremes of inequality.

0:10:30.388,0:10:32.750
You'd pay nurses and teachers more,

0:10:32.750,0:10:34.958
people that do public good.

0:10:36.663,0:10:39.755
We also need to make[br]university admissions fairer.

0:10:41.471,0:10:42.932
I would do far more[br]

0:10:42.932,0:10:47.470
to give lower grade offers to young people[br]from disadvantaged backgrounds.

0:10:47.869,0:10:50.690
Universities already do this,[br]but they could do much more.

0:10:50.700,0:10:54.330
A "B," "C," or "D"[br]is an amazing accomplishment

0:10:54.390,0:10:57.320
if you've been in care,[br]if you've been living rough.

0:10:58.070,0:10:59.553
If you've just been poor.

0:11:01.344,0:11:03.960
I would establish a percent scheme[br]for state schools.

0:11:04.340,0:11:06.260
This has been done in the United States.

0:11:06.260,0:11:09.030
If you come in the top[br]10 percent of the class,

0:11:09.030,0:11:12.239
you get automatically enrolled[br]into your local university.

0:11:12.840,0:11:16.800
Your circumstances have[br]a profound impact on your achievement.

0:11:18.224,0:11:19.610
My favorite, though,

0:11:19.610,0:11:21.220
is to choose students randomly

0:11:21.220,0:11:24.674
that have all met[br]a particular academic level.

0:11:25.510,0:11:26.770
To be frank,

0:11:26.770,0:11:29.500
getting into those top universities[br]with those high grades

0:11:29.500,0:11:31.360
is already pretty much a lottery.

0:11:31.500,0:11:34.070
And lotteries are used in education a lot.

0:11:35.192,0:11:39.860
At a stroke, we would sweep away[br]all the middle-class advantages:

0:11:40.220,0:11:44.750
the gaming, the cheating,[br]the queue jumping.

0:11:45.620,0:11:49.500
The roll of a dice[br]would equalize life's lottery.

0:11:50.987,0:11:52.460
And one final thing:

0:11:53.305,0:11:55.900
don't let anyone tell you[br]that the world is fair,

0:11:56.950,0:11:59.205
that we live in a meritocracy,

0:11:59.205,0:12:02.200
that social mobility[br]is somehow dumbing down.

0:12:02.950,0:12:06.635
We play on a grotesquely[br]uneven playing field.

0:12:06.976,0:12:08.913
It looks something like this.

0:12:08.913,0:12:09.920
(Laughter)

0:12:09.920,0:12:12.880
And most of us, not just those[br]from poor backgrounds,

0:12:12.880,0:12:15.652
face an uphill climb just to compete.

0:12:17.676,0:12:23.230
Remember an "A" is not always[br]better than a "B" or a "C."

0:12:24.550,0:12:25.560
Thank you.

0:12:25.569,0:12:28.375
(Applause)