Who is missing from higher education?

Is HE participation lower in less affluent areas because of poverty of aspiration
among the relevant age cohorts? Or is it the generally lower initial school
qualifications in poorer areas that precede and largely determine the lower level of
participation? The answer is crucial for policy purposes, but this issue is rarely
addressed directly with even tentative figures. If the former explanation is true, then
policies to persuade children from families in poverty of the benefits of HE such as
means-tested grants, interest-free loans and so on, are appropriate. If the latter
explanation is true, then such policies can have only limited effects. In this case, a
much greater emphasis needs to be put into strategies to prepare students of all ages
for pre-university qualifications.

The best available datasets appear to suggest that there is no simple and consistent
pattern of under-representation among socially disadvantaged groups in attendance to
HE, once prior qualifications for entry are taken into account. Any under-
representation is already as much in evidence in terms of the possession of entry
qualifications at NQF level 3, and these in turn are based almost entirely on staying-
on rates in schools and colleges, in turn based almost entirely on NQF level 2
qualifications, and so on (see Gorard and Smith 2004). This, in turn, suggests that WP
activities need to be directed at the earlier-life of potential students more than at the
point of possible transfer to HE.

References

Callender, C. and Kemp, M. (2001) Students in Wales: An analysis of data from the
student income and expenditure survey 1998/99, Cardiff: National Assembly
for Wales

Connor, H. and Dewson, S. (2001) Social class and higher education: issues affecting
decisions on participation by lower social class groups, DfEE Research Report
267

Department for Education and Skills (2003) Widening participation in higher
education, London: Department for Education and Skills

Goddard, A. and Utley, A. (2004) Review ‘papers over cracks’, Times Higher
Educational Supplement, 9/4/04, p.1

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