Associations between characteristics of students

These pages display new, experimental access and continuation measures.

ABCS (Associations between characteristics of students) identifies groups of students by how likely they are to access or continue in higher education based on a set of student characteristics (for example, their ethnicity, sex or background).

The sets of student characteristics we consider should not have an impact on student behaviour, but the evidence shows that they do.

Access to higher education

Explore the characteristics which affect the chances of young people going into higher education.

Continuing in higher education

Explore the characteristics which affect the chances of students continuing their studies.

What do these pages show?

The pages use a new set of measures, which we call 'Associations between characteristics of students' (ABCS).
The measures take the form of access and continuation 'groups':
- Access group 1 = the least likely to enter higher education
- Access group 5 = the most likely to enter higher education
- Continuation group 1 = the least likely to continue in higher education
- Continuation group 4 = the most likely to continue in higher education.
By 'continue' we mean students who continue into their second year of study.
Users can select either a single characteristic (for example, ethnicity) or multiple characteristics (ethnicity and sex) to see how this affects which group students will appear in.

Read our report on the new ABCS measures

More about the new measures and how we calculate them

Give feedback

ABCS is a new experimental measure and we are actively seeking feedback.

If you have any comments, criticisms or suggestions, or if you require any further information or details, please contact Annalise Ruck at [email protected].

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Associations between characteristics of students

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