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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol 6, No. 5. May 5, 1943

Class Mobility?

Class Mobility?

Now, education is the instrument, par excellence, making for class mobility; insofar as a University is an educational and cultural institution, it is a melting pot for class distinctions. Further, the results of the Questionnaire indicate that the occupations of our students do not cause class distinctions. It was differences of beliefs—religious, political, etc.—and moral standards that caused most students to feel separated from some others. Thus I am led to the opinion that social groups within the College correspond to social sub-classes in wider society.

The parents of our twenty-two stu dents range in occupational groups from skilled craftsmen to professional men, that is, from lower middle to upper class. Inasmuch as a University makes for class mobility, some students are likely to face psychological conflicts in moving, especially upwards, into a class different from that of their own family. The questionnaire revealed that only five men, out of twenty-two students, are able to be quite mobile in university society. I would finish by saying that frequently class mobility is hindered rather by reticence on the part of the lower classes than arrogance of the upper classes.

J. W. Money.