Risk 3: Perception of higher education
Students may not feel able to apply to higher education, or certain types of providers within higher education, despite being qualified.
Explanation
Even where a student has the grades and information or guidance required to choose a particular course or provider, they may not apply.
This can be due to a number of factors, including (but not limited to):
- financial or familial circumstances
- perception of the provider
- limited course provision (such as having no part-time courses).
Experiencing this risk is likely to impact a student at the access, on-course and at the progression stages of their education.
- When attainment is controlled for, a reluctance to apply for certain providers and/or courses by some students can lead to lower application rates to certain providers and/or courses by students with certain characteristics, and subsequently lower progression rates.
Students who are:
- children in need
- care experienced
- from Gypsy, Traveller or Roma ethnic groups, or the Boater and Showmen communities
- other ethnicity
- white students
- black students
- mature
- first in family
- from a low household income.
Note that this 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.
For different groups of students, the impact of these risks that are visible in data might be:
- lower application rates either to the provider as a whole or to particular courses (where prior attainment is controlled for)
- lower progression rates to the provider as a whole, or to particular courses (where prior attainment is controlled for).
Although this is a national risk, the extent to which it is seen at each provider may depend on factors such as:
- location
- entrance tariff
- whether the provider recruits nationally or locally.
We therefore encourage provider to examine their own data and establish if this risk to equality of opportunity affects their current or potential student population.
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