As society is transformed, focusing on graduate employment will no longer be sufficient, says Graeme Atherton.

Lord Willetts understands higher education and academics very well. He was never more accurate than when he said in 2011 that you don’t become an academic to improve social mobility. While the government might set more targets for access to higher education and put social mobility in the title of its policy papers for the sector, this issue remains, in reality, a marginal concern. No matter how hard we may try, this is not going to change until we start to change what social mobility itself means and the debate surrounding it.