SISL: Enhancing equity in higher education

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Enhancing equity in higher education
Geoff Whitty

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Despite minor narrowing in the official measure in recent years, there remains a substantial gap between the higher education participation rates of those from higher and lower socio-economic groups of more than 20 percentage points.

Interestingly, using a different measure, a recent HEFCE report showed that the rate of increase in participation for the most disadvantaged areas is considerably greater than that for areas of greater advantage, particularly since 2004/05. As a consequence, most of the additional entrants in the 2009/10 cohort are from more disadvantaged backgrounds.

So, in quantitative terms, progress is being made in getting increased numbers of traditionally under-represented students to university. However, looking at the data in more detail, there is another dimension to consider – namely that of fair access.

This involves exploring not just whether different groups of young people continue to higher education but also differences in where and what they go on to study. Only when both quantititive and qualititive inequalitities have been successfully tackled can it reasonably be claimed that we have an equitable system.

Statistics show that 20 per cent of entrants to old universities come from professional families compared to 10 per cent of those going to new universities. The more fine-grained the distinctions, the more noticeable is this effect. It would appear that while there has been some progress in widening participation over the past decade, there remain considerable qualitative inequalities.

Research undertaken by colleagues at the London Institute of Education and the Institute of Fiscal Studies used previously unlinked datasets from schools, college and higher education to enable analysis of the factors driving higher education participation. The headline finding was that, whilst there is a considerable gap in higher education participation between those from different backgrounds, this gap is actually very small once prior attainment has been fully taken into account.

Another finding of the research was that, while participation in ‘high-status’ universities is also not evenly distributed across different groups when looking at the raw numbers, this bias towards higher socio-economic groups attending higher-status institutions is reduced once other variables are included. Again it seems that prior attainment is driving the uneven distribution of pupils attending high status institutions.

In order to enhance equity a number of policy shifts need to happen:

We need to focus on narrowing attainment gaps much earlier in pupils’ educational careers.
School-university links need to be developed for all schools, with joint activities undertaken on a more regular basis to raise aspirations and maintain the motivation to succeed - particularly among pupils from families with limited cultural capital.
Schools need to improve the information, advice and guidance (IAG) they provide about universities. This includes being transparent about differences in status – perceived or real – between different institutions.
Parents and communities need to be involved in activities to encourage interest in higher education.
Policy makers and institutional leaders need access to more sophisticated research and data sets if they are to monitor performance and act to enhance equity in all its manifestations.
For the time being anyway, contextual data should be used as part of the toolbox for making admissions decisions, including at so-called ‘competitive’ universities.

We are making welcome progress in getting the issues onto the agenda and in widening participation. We now need to make more progress in actually achieving equity, especially as the current competitive pressures on university places could well lead in the opposite direction if we are not very careful.

Geoff Whitty is Director, Institute of Education, University of London

References

Boliver, V. (2008, October 20) Five Decades of Class Inequality in British Higher Education.Presentation delivered to University of Oxford Sociology Seminar, 20 October 2008. Available from: http://www.sociology.ox.ac.uk/research/seminars.asp.

Chowdry, H., Crawford, C., Dearden, L., Goodman, A., & Vignoles, A. (2008) Widening Participation in Higher Education: Analysis using Linked Administrative Data. London: Institute for Fiscal Studies. Available from: http://www.ifs.org.uk/comms/r69.pdf.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills [BIS] (2009b) Full-time Young Participation by Socio-Economic Class (FYPSEC): 2009 Update. BIS. Available at: http://www.dius.gov.uk/~/media/publications/F/fypsec_paper_2009.

Higher Education Funding Council for England [HEFCE] (2010) Trends in young participation in higher education: core results for England. Issues paper 2010/03. Available at: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2010/10_03/.

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