Toffs at the top

16 June 2006

Private education produces more than half of UK's top journalists

A new report has revealed that more than half of the UK's top 100 news and current affairs journalists were privately educated.

According to a survey by the Sutton Trust, 54 per cent of leading national newspaper editors, columnists, broadcast editors and news presenters went to school in the private sector. Private school pupils account for just 7 per cent of the school population.

The report also reveals that 33 per cent of the top 100 went to grammar schools, and 14 per cent attended comprehensive schools. Comprehensive schools currently educate almost 90 per cent of children.

The Trust claims journalism has become more private school-dominated over the past 20 years with the number of top journalists coming from the sector increasing by 5 per cent. In 1986, 49 per cent of the top 100 journalists were privately educated, while 44 per cent attended grammar schools and 6 per cent went to comprehensives.

The report says: "Without exception every journalist we spoke to agreed that news and current affairs is increasingly becoming a preserve for those from more privileged backgrounds — more often than not those educated in private schools. In particular there is perceived to be a systematic bias at the beginning of careers towards those who are well off and from the London area."

It claims the perception was based on the belief that privately educated journalists were more likely to:

■ Survive the low pay and insecurity that are endemic at junior levels in news journalism;
■ Afford the costs of living in London and postgraduate journalism courses;
■ Have family contacts within the industry.

The survey also reveals that of the 81 per cent of the leading journalists in 2006 who had been to university, more than half were educated at Oxbridge, including a third who went to Oxford. Among the 1986 sample, 78 per cent were university graduates, 67 per cent of whom had been to Oxbridge, including two-fifths to Oxford.

Among Oxbridge-educated national editors are Roger Alton, of The Observer, Lionel Barber, of the Financial Times, John Bryant, at the Daily Telegraph, Alan Rusbridger of The Guardian and Peter Wright of the Mail on Sunday.

But the survey also shows that some national editors made it to the top without a university education. They include Robert Thomson of The Times, Richard Wallace at the Daily Mirror, Dawn Neesom at the Daily Star and the News of the World's Andy Coulson.

Oxbridge educated broadcasters include Adam Boulton of Sky News, Channel 4's Krishnan Guru-Murthy and the BBC's David Dimbleby and Matt Frei. The BBC's John Humphrys and ITV's James Mates and Trevor McDonald did not go to university.

A section in the report about nepotism says: "Family ties remain a powerful force in the newsroom.

There are countless examples of sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, partners and former partners who have followed in the footsteps of relatives in pursuing successful careers in journalism."

The report further reveals that the proportion of women among the top 100 news journalists increased from 10 per cent in 1986 to 18 per cent in 2006.

Lee Elliott Major, news editor of the Times Higher Education Supplement, who led the research, said: "What the research does not suggest is that editors routinely favour those from privileged educational backgrounds. But it does point to a systematic bias towards the better off at the crucial entry level into national news organisations."

NUJ national newspapers officer Barry Fitzpatrick told Press Gazette: "Clearly we are concerned about anything that would appear to restrict or limit entry into the profession. We're very concerned with the current situation where entry into the industry is quite an expensive career choice.

Because of low pay and the cost of people's degrees and qualifications it means that people from poorer backgrounds and families simply don't have journalism as an option.

"Again the report does highlight that position.

We would agree with that as one of the conclusions it makes."

Sutton Trust chairman Sir Peter Lampl, who set up the Trust in 1997 to promote social mobility by providing educational opportunities to young people from non-privileged backgrounds, said: "It cannot be healthy for our media leaders to come mostly from backgrounds that are so different from the vast majority of the population. The newspaper and broadcasting industries are not attracting a rich diversity of recruits and should look urgently at their recruitment processes."

The Sutton Trust is an educational charity that has previously researched the educational backgrounds of the UK's top lawyers and MPs.

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