Poor students missing out on university they deserve
SECONDARY schools are being blamed for students from poor households not getting into the universities that their grades deserve, a study has found.
Up to a quarter of teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds are taking up places at lower-ranking universities despite having good enough A-level results to go a superior institution, according to researchers at University College London.
The study examined the characteristics of those who “undermatched” – meaning they attended worse universities than they could have done, based on their grades – and those who “overmatched”, meaning the opposite.
Poor students – those from areas of deprivation or those who were eligible for free school meals, were more likely to “undermatch”, researchers found.
Academics analysed data from over 130,000 state-educated students in England and found that the school they attended accounted for much of the “mismatch” in their university choice.
Dr Gill Wyness, the paper’s lead author, said that when considering students from within the same school, the gap in prestige of universities they went on to “virtually disappeared”.
“That leads us to the conclusion that it is something to do with the school,” she told The Daily Telegraph. “A potential explanation is that some schools will drive students to particular courses and others potentially won’t.”
Dr Wyness added that the information and guidance offered by teachers, as well as the school’s resources, can play a role in university ambitions.
The ambitions of fellow pupils at a school could also be a factor, she said, explaining: “If none of your peers go to good universities, you don’t either.”
The study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, also found white students were more likely to “undermatch” than their peers from ethnic minorities.
Students who prefer to live closer to home; who are less sure about whether they will go to university by age 16; and those who do not get into university with their first choice of subject, are all more likely to undermatch.
Researchers found students who go to worse universities than they might have done suffer “economic penalties”.
Those who “undermatched” were more likely to drop out of university, to get a lower-class degree, and to earn less. Meanwhile, those who “overmatched” don’t suffer ill consequences.
They reap the benefits of going to a better university, as they are more likely to graduate with an uppersecond or first-class degree as well as being more likely to earn more, researchers found.
Cheryl Lloyd, programme head at the Nuffield Foundation, said the research highlights how “students from different backgrounds but with similar abilities are making very different choices when it comes to the university courses they decide to study”.