While a record number of students from poorer backgrounds are applying to university, it's still the richest that are securing places at top institutions. This report explores the ways the government can increase engagement of students from all backgrounds
Ever since higher £3,000 tuition fees were introduced in England in 2006, there has been a concerted effort to ensure that universities are committed to taking on students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Progress has undoubtedly been made in this area, with increasingly diverse student bodies serving as testimony to the growing culture of inclusion on many university campuses.
Recent data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS)1 shows a record number of students from the poorest backgrounds in England are now applying to study at university. Despite this, students from the richest backgrounds are still far more likely to be placed at the ‘top’ universities - while students from the poorest backgrounds are more likely to report difficulties and drop out.2 More work urgently needs to be done to close this glaring participation gap.
On 1 April this year, the new sector regulator for higher education – the Office for Students (OfS) – came into force with a fresh mandate to help students to get into and succeed in higher education. Sitting on the OfS's senior leadership team is the new Director for Fair Access and Participation (a role currently held by Chris Millward), whose responsibility it is to ensure universities are doing all they can to widen access and participation to currently under-represented groups.
As anyone new to a job will appreciate, it is not always easy to map a plan of action and find direction, especially when the challenges that need addressing are so complex and wide-ranging. Last month, together with the education charity Brightside, the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) took the opportunity to give Chris Millward a helping hand by putting together a report, including 35 different ideas on what could be done by universities and the OfS to ensure nobody gets left behind.3
The report, Reaching the parts of society universities have missed, contains recommendations from sector experts, students, journalists, politicians, think tanks and academics. The contributions are as diverse as the voices and the ideas are as ambitious as they are numerous.
Some ideas in the report seek to help different types of students. These include calls for:
- more fee-wavers for asylum-seeking young people
- designated members of staff for care leavers
- mandatory unconscious bias training, for university staff to give black and minority ethnic (BAME) students the best chance of succeeding
- a higher standard for initiatives focused on the integration of white, working class pupils.
Other ideas require the buy-in of stakeholders outside the 'traditional' higher education sector. This involves:
- the creation of efficient and cohesive pathways from schools through college to university
- university support for nurseries so that more people can get a high-quality education as early as possible
- employers putting an end to unpaid student and graduate internships.
Some ideas even require a major overhaul of established customs and practices, such as calls for:
- an end to unconditional offers before they damage the life chances of some of the most underprivileged students
- experiments with post-qualification admissions
- the reintroduction of a cap on student numbers and the introduction of hard quotas for students from working-class backgrounds
- the foundation of new Oxbridge colleges to boost the number of students from under-represented groups at the UK's oldest and richest universities.
With concerns for student mental health rising on the higher education policy agenda, one idea in the report also calls for the appointment of a commissioner for student mental health to co-ordinate a national response to the growing numbers of students reporting low levels of wellbeing, compared to the wider population in the same age group (as shown in the chart below from the 2018 HEPI/Advance HE Student Academic Experience Survey)4:
,ONS aged 20-24 2016/17,Student Academic Experience Survey 2016,Student Academic Experience Survey 2017,Student Academic Experience Survey 2018 Life satisfaction,28,16,14,14 Life worthwhile,32,22,19,17 Happiness,33,21,19,17 Low anxiety ,36,21,19,18
In an ideal world, all of these ideas and more would be fulfilled. However, with time and budgets as tight as ever, responsibility is very much on the shoulders of the OfS and the new Director for Fair Access and Participation to prioritise the recommendations that could bring about the greatest quick gains and to put systems in place to ensure longer-term goals will also be achieved.
With the regulation of higher education in England in flux, the time is now rife to set a new vision for the promotion of social mobility in the sector. Nobody expects an instant miracle - as we push to improve access to multiple under-represented groups, we must not risk more intrusive regulation as this could set us back rather than spur us on.
It is ultimately hoped the ideas contained in this report will help the sector to open up opportunities for as many students as possible, benefitting individuals, universities and society as a whole.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of HECSU/Prospects
Notes
- Rise in rate of 18 year olds applying for UK higher education, UCAS, 2018.
- Record number of poor students enter top universities, The Sutton Trust, 2018.
- Reaching the parts of society universities have missed: A manifesto for the new Director of Fair Access and Participation, HEPI and Brightside, 2018.
- 2018 Student Academic Experience Survey, Advance HE and HEPI, 2018.
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