The UK field of higher education institutions and its homologies: class, gender and race

This paper tests whether the system of Higher Education Institutions in the UK forms not just a status hierarchy, as commonly assumed or previously suggested, but a multidimensional space or ‘field’ of the kind explored by Pierre Bourdieu in France. Using data from the UK’s Higher Education Statistics Agency and geometric data analysis, it answers in the affirmative, revealing a tripolar structure formed by orthogonal axes of difference and domination. The first axis polarises higher-capital and lower-capital institutions, but a secondary axis polarises higher-capital institutions according to a series of related oppositions: academic/applied, older/newer, sciences/business. We then go on to explore associated properties of academic staff and student bodies as indicators of the field’s homologies with the academic field, class, ethnicity/race and gender. The findings disclose the structural context informing institutional decision making and student choices.