Exploring the Linkage of Higher Education and Attitudes Toward European Integration: The British Case

Abstract

While cross-sectional research has consistently shown graduates are less Eurosceptic than non-graduates, little is known about the causal role of university study in determining these attitudes, as few longitudinal studies have explored this. This study does so, providing robust causal estimates of higher education’s effect on Euroscepticism through applying individual- and sibling fixed-effect modelling techniques to British Household Panel and Understanding Society data from 1999-2022. Both specifications provide consistent results; suggesting university study does little to decrease Euroscepticism in the short-run but has substantial long-run effects. This alludes to an ‘allocation’ effect, whereby it is largely not the experience of obtaining a degree itself, but the opportunities afforded by virtue of doing so that shape attitudes toward Europe. Our novel findings not only demonstrate that within-sibling estimates of higher education’s effect can be generalised to the wider British population but also advance our understanding of the mechanisms linking education with Euroscepticism.