October 19, 2018

expert reaction to relationship between genetics and university success

Research published in Scientific Reports shows some genetic correlation between university success and suggests some people select and modify their educational experiences in part based on their genetic propensities.

Dr David W Hill, Statistical Geneticist, Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, University of Edinburgh, said:

“Smith-Woolley at al. state that they performed a genetically sensitive analysis of university success. This is exactly what they do using methods well suited to establish the presence, and gauge the magnitude, of genetic influences.

“This is described as the “first” of such analyses examining university success. However, it is important to emphasise that, as stated in the press release, it has long been established that the heritability of educational success, as measured by whether a participant attained a college or university level degree or not, or the number of years of education one has received, and of course pre-university school grades, are all non-zero and often substantial.

“I don’t really think anyone would expect there to not be a genetic influence acting on university success, given that all traits are expected to be somewhat heritable, and we already know that educational success, intelligence, personality, and whether or not one chooses to take university entrance exams and how well they do at them, have all been shown to be heritable in the same sample used by Smith-Woolley here.”

* ‘The genetics of university success’ by Emily Smith-Woolley et al. was published in Scientific Reports at 14:00 UK time on Thursday 18th October.

Declared interests

Dr David Hill: “I have no conflict of interest”