Education is a tool and policy lever used by governments around the world to try to heal their borders within – applying these ‘educational fixes’ to plug the gaping gaps between regions and places within countries is common. These educational fixes might involve trying to spread out education more evenly across geographic space or giving out particular kinds of educational qualifications to ‘needy’ areas. Or they could involve more root and branch reforms, overhauling the entire education system of a country in an attempt to make it work for all regions and places.

Reflecting the broader doctrine that is so embedded in global policy thinking, these educational responses to addressing regional inequalities stem from thinking about people as a resource for economies – a resource that differs in its adequacy to meeting the needs of businesses. This orthodox way of thinking, referred to as human capital theory, is ingrained in public policy and directly equates ‘learning to earning’; the more educated an individual becomes, the higher their earnings, and the higher the skills base of a region the stronger its economy.

Public policy in many countries, not just the UK, is locked in a way of thinking that sees the value of education purely in terms of individual earnings; just like investments can be made into machinery or technology to improve productivity, investments can also be made into people to improve their productivity. In this sense, the problem of regional economic inequality is interpreted at least in part as a problem of deficient human capital in low growth areas and regions: therefore, investments to boost this human capital, just like investing in infrastructure like road and rail, is seen as the route to growing these ailing regional economies.