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Rethinking access to university
The NEON Summer Symposium 2017 focused on widening access to higher education, discussing the current state and challenges faced in achieving social mobility in the UK. Topics included prior attainment of disadvantaged students, cooperation with schools, and the importance of institutional commitment to widening participation. The symposium aimed to provide insights on effective strategies and data from various projects to enhance access at high-tariff institutions.
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Rethinking access to university
- 1. NEON Summer Symposium 2017 WideningAccess in Higher Education: Are we there yet? 8th & 9th June 2017 #NEONSummerSymposium @NEONHE
- 2. Rethinking access Emilie Sundorph,Researcher @ESundorph Louis Coiffait, Head of Education @LouisMMCoiffait (sadly couldn’t be with us) Dan Vasilev, Researcher @dan_b_vasilev Reform @ReformThinkTank
- 3. Agenda > Introducing Reform >The wider political context > Our HE access project > Participation differences > The five common challenges > What works? > Q&A (slides available afterwards, sources in the notes)
- 4. Introducing Reform > Independentand non-partisan Westminster think tank > Our mission is to set out a better way to deliver public services and economic prosperity
- 5. The wider politicalcontext > Ongoing (if inconsistent) focus on ‘social mobility’ > UK £ inequality stubbornly high > HE returns make it a key lever for social mobility > HE relatively well funded > Renewed focus on ‘skills’ coming? > Greater role e.g. attainment and/or sponsor schools?
- 6. Our HE accessproject > Increasing access at high-tariff institutions > Where have institutions improved and how? > HESA data, access agreements, OFFA spending data, FOIs and interviews > Available this summer – we’d love your feedback
- 7. Participation differences > Thesewill be familiar to you…
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- 10. The five commonchallenges > You may know these all too well too… 1) Prior attainment 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 Disadvantaged students Other students Percentage of students achieving 3 or more A grades at A level in 2015-16 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Disadvantaged students Other students Percentage of students achieving 5 or more A*-C grades at GCSE in 2013-14
- 11. The five commonchallenges 2) Cooperation with schools 3) Aspirations and perceptions of HE > Parent and teacher encouragement 4) Measuring success > POLAR issues > What kind of impact? 5) Commitment of institutions? > “Some institutions see Widening Participation spending as a tax”
- 12. What works > Spending? >Lack of consistency £- £200 £400 £600 £800 £1,000 £1,200 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 Average outreach spend per student and progress against benchmark 2012- 15
- 13. What works > Workingwith younger students? > Using Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) > Clarifying good outcomes
- 14. What works > Seniorstaff buy-in > “People will even support the same football team as the VC” > Link to admissions > Centralised and contextualised and (even more!) professionalised > Clear effect in the data > “Any institution that takes WP seriously has to consider contextualised admissions”
- 15. Accelerating contextualised admissions >Progress hard and slow(ing) 1.5pp 0.5pp > Could help whole sector > Value for money (clearer impact than 16-18 outreach?) > TEF should show value added by HEIs > Why not? > Can they handle it / compete? Seems so > Lowering standards? Also seems not. Research more > Unfair on others? They already have advantages 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Percentageofallfirstdegreeentrants Proportion of POLAR3 quintile one students at English universities All universities High Status Universities
- 16. Rethinking access –Q&A Emilie Sundorph, Researcher @ESundorph Louis Coiffait, Head of Education @LouisMMCoiffait
Editor's Notes
- #5 reform.uk
- #6 https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/8937 p.29
- #8 Department for Education, Widening Participation in Higher Education, England, 2013/14 Age Cohort, 2016.
- #9 Department for Education, Widening Participation in Higher Education, England, 2013/14 Age Cohort, 2016. Claire Crawford et al., Family Background and University Success, 2016. High-status refers to Russell Group universities or universities with equivalent research standards.
- #10 Department for Education, Widening Participation in Higher Education, England, 2013/14 Age Cohort, 2016. Claire Crawford et al., Family Background and University Success, 2016. High-status refers to Russell Group universities or universities with equivalent research standards.
- #11 GCSE: 36.5 vs 64 per cent, 27.4 pp gap. Source: Department for Education, Statistical Working Paper: Measuring Disadvantaged Pupils’ Attainment Gaps over Time (Updated), 2015 A-level: 4.9 vs 11 per cent, 6.1 pp gap. Department for Education, A Level Attainment: Characteristics. Ad-Hoc Notice, 2017
- #12 Working-class parents are more likely to prioritise other factors than rankings. Source: Gavan Conlon and Maike Halterbeck, The Determinants of University Selection (London Economics, 2017) Almost half of state school teachers would not encourage their brightest pupils to apply to Oxbridge. Source: The Sutton Trust, ‘Over Four in Then State School Teachers Rarely or Never Advise Bright Pupils to Apply to Oxbridge’, Press release, (13 October 2016)
- #13 Net progress against 2011 benchmark Two outliers, no significant correlation
- #14 Source: OECD, Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools, 2012, 27
- #16 Reasons why it might be a good idea for the whole sector to increase contextualised admissions, current approaches are slow(ing) Sources: The Sutton Trust, Innovative University Admissions Worldwide: A Percent Scheme for the UK?, 2009 Joanne Moore, Anna Mountford-Zimdars, and Jo Wiggans, Contextualised Admissions: Examining the Evidence (Supporting Professionalism in Admissions, 2013)