Dr Lee Elliot Major

Lee Elliot Major is Britain’s first Professor of Social Mobility, based at the University of Exeter. He was previously Chief Executive of the Sutton Trust, the UK’s leading social mobility foundation.

His work is dedicated to improving the lives of children and young people from under-resourced or poorer backgrounds. He works closely with school and university leaders, global employers and Governments in the UK and across the world to develop practical ways of improving educational and life prospects.

His latest book Equity in Education argues for a new approach and language for disadvantage and challenges deficit discourses in education. On its release the book was immediately ranked among Amazon’s ‘Hot New Releases in Education’. His Penguin book Social Mobility and Its Enemies has attracted attention across the world. Lee is one of the most prominent public voices in national education debates and is invited to speak about the topic across the world.

He was awarded an OBE in the 2019 Queen’s Honours. He is the first in his family to go to university and once worked as a bin-man.

He has served on several government advisory bodies and currently sits on the Department for Education’s Schools Strategy & Delivery Advisory Group.

He holds several academic posts including Associate Member, Nuffield College, University of Oxford, and Associate, London School of Economics, Centre for Economic Performance. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and serves on the Strategic Advisory Network of the Economic and Social Research Council.