The Higher Education And The Social Mobility In Early Modern England

Social mobility is very frequent in early modern England. In order to reveal the positive role of higher education played in early modern England in some extent, I put together this social phenomenon with the "education expansion" phenomenon to consider. The main viewpoint in this thesis is that the increase of the student in university mostly lies in the increase of the student from the plebeian family who are non-gentlemen, after graduating from the university, they can influx into the genteel hierarchies from the non- genteel hierarchies by acquiring the gentle status, on the other hand, they also can achieve upward social mobility by acquiring the occupational status and social status correspondingly. Higher education has become one of the main paths of the social mobility, and it is beneficial to the transition for England from the tradition to the modern.