Risk 12: Progression from higher education
Students may not have equal opportunity to progress to an outcome they consider to be a positive reflection of their higher education experience.
Explanation
Some students do not have equal opportunity to access certain outcomes from higher education, such as further study or progressing into employment that is reflective of their qualification levels.
This can be due to factors such as financial position, access and time to undertake extracurricular or supra-curricular activities, and lack of information and guidance.
Experiencing this risk is likely to impact a student at the access, on-course and at the progression stages of their education.
- Differences in equality of opportunity relating to progression may lead to lower progression to further study for students with particular characteristics.
- It may also lead to low diversity in specific areas of the labour-market, lower earning for students with certain characteristics, and lower levels of job satisfaction.
Students who are:
- from a low household income
- parents
- vocational learners
- female students*
- care experienced
- estranged
- Muslim
- from a socio-economic background of 'routine occupations' or 'semi-routine occupations'
- from a socio-economic background of 'intermediate occupations'
- from a socio-economic background of 'small employers and own account workers'
- from a socio-economic background of 'Lower supervisory and technical occupations'
- from a socio-economic background of 'never worked' or 'long-term unemployed'
- young carers
- from Gypsy, Traveller or Roma ethnic groups, or the Boater and Showmen communities
- other ethnicity
- mixed ethnicity
- Asian
- black students
- mature
- students reporting a mental health condition
- disabled
- first in family.
Note that the ordering does not denote a scale or ranking system.
Intersectionality:
It is important to consider how different student characteristics might interact with each other, and with school and areas-based characteristics. Providers may also wish to consider whether the mode of study heightens a risk. It is therefore recommended that providers consider intersectionality closely when looking at their own data.
For different groups of students, the impact of these risks that are visible in data might be:
- low progression rates to further study
- lower uptake of further study places
- higher proportion of students in ‘over-qualified’ positions
- lower salaries after a certain number of years
- graduate reflections in the Graduate Outcomes Survey.
Although this is a national risk, the extent to which it is seen at each provider may depend on factors such as:
- size
- location
- whether the provider recruits locally or nationally
- the extent of on-course academic and personal support.
We therefore encourage providers to examine their own data to establish if this risk to equality of opportunity affects their current or potential student population.
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