Privileged Pathways: The Academic Elite in Europe

While the impact of social class background on academic career trajectories is widely acknowledged, direct research into class-based inequalities within academia remains sparse (see e.g. Hurst et al. 2023; Roscigno et al. 2023). In the U.S., not only do a small number of elite universities disproportionately supply the majority of academic faculty (Wapman, 2022), but faculty at prestigious institutions are also 54% more likely to come from PhD-holding families, signaling a troubling concentration of privilege (Morgan, 2022). This imbalance underscores a broader issue: academia, particularly at its upper echelons, continues to favour those from socioeconomically advantaged backgrounds. Similar concerns have been raised in the UK, where calls for systematic data on the social class backgrounds of academics have intensified (Wakeling, 2023). Yet, patterns of academic inequality across continental Europe remain underexplored. This paper examines the social and institutional backgrounds of recipients of a prestigious EU fellowship, often seen as a gateway to elite academic positions in Europe. Drawing on survey data from approximately 5,500 alumni across more than 30 countries, the study traces the career trajectories of fellowship awardees within the European academic workforce. The findings reveal a concentration of privilege similar to that in the U.S., though with notable cross-country variations. The reproduction of academic privilege is lowest in Southern Europe (e.g., Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal), where around 10% of academics’ fathers hold a PhD. In contrast, in countries like Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, the figure is around 25% or above. PhD-holders originating from Central-Eastern Europe and post-Soviet countries—often overlooked in academic inequality discussions—display even higher rates of privilege, with Slovakia leading at 43%, followed by Hungary and Russia at 28%. These figures underscore the entrenched inequalities faced by scholars from these regions in accessing prestigious fellowships and, consequently, elite academic positions in Europe.