University Challenge: How Higher Education Can Advance Social

University Challenge: How Higher Education Can Advance Social Mobility University Challenge: How Higher Education Can University Challenge: How Higher Education Can Advance Social Mobility A progress report by the Independent Reviewer on A progress report by the Independent Reviewer on Social Mobility and Child Poverty October 2012 A Social Mobility and Child Poverty October 2012 Contents Foreword and summary 1 Chapter 1 Introduction 11 Chapter 2 Access all areas 19 Chapter 3 Making the grade 27 Chapter 4 Getting ready – reaching out to 33 potential applicants Chapter 5 Getting in – university admissions 45 Chapter 6 Staying in – student retention 59 Chapter 7 Getting on – student outcomes 67 Chapter 8 How government can help 75 Annex Acknowledgements 87 References 89 © Crown copyright 2012 You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, go to: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU email: [email protected] Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. If you have an enquiry regarding this publication, please contact: 0845 000 4999 [email protected] This publication is available from www.official-documents.gov.uk and www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk 1 Foreword and summary Rt. Hon. Alan Milburn, Independent Reviewer on Social Mobility and Child Poverty Like so many others of We are blessed in Britain to have a world-leading my generation I was the higher education sector. Our universities are a first in my family to go great source of strength for the country and their to university. It was an role – in an increasingly knowledge-based economy experience that changed – is becoming more and more central to our my life. As a child from future prosperity. Universities are also becoming a council estate I was increasingly central to our future social prospects. lucky enough to end Education and employability are the keys that up in the Cabinet. I was can unlock both individual citizens’ and countries’ born at the right time. In progress. Who gets into university and how they mid-20th-century Britain get on once they have left will have a critical role social mobility was in full swing. By 1958, when I in determining whether Britain’s sluggish rates of was born, the prospect of a more classless society social mobility can be improved. In recent years seemed within reach. Half a century later such it has become commonplace to focus on the optimism looks hopelessly misplaced. Intractable economic good that universities bring to Britain. levels of social inequality and a flatlining in social Today, there needs to be an equal focus on the mobility have thwarted repeated attempts to social good they can bring. realise the post-war vision of a fair society. Every cloud, however, has a silver lining. In the Recent progress and new risks aftermath of the global financial crisis a new public The last four decades have been a period of – maybe even political – consensus has begun to unprecedented growth in higher education in emerge that entrenched inequality and ossified the UK. At the start of the 1970s there were social mobility are not viable propositions for a little over 600,000 university students. Today Britain. Institutions, from banks to governments, there are 2.5 million. That expansion provided are having to answer new questions about how a benign backdrop for efforts to widen the they will change what they do in order to change social make-up of those participating in higher how society works. Universities are no exception. education. From the mid- to the late 2000s the gap between the higher education participation This report asks what universities are doing to help rates of people living in the most advantaged and create a Britain that is more socially mobile, and the most disadvantaged areas narrowed, both in what more they could do. The answer to the first proportional terms and percentage point terms. question seems to be quite a lot. The answer to As the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) found, it the second is that they could, and should, be doing is likely that this is the first time in our country’s a lot more – and in a far more focused way. history this has ever happened. It is a remarkable achievement. 2 University Challenge: How Higher Education Can Advance Social Mobility Today, however, the most advantaged 20% of widen access to ensure greater diversity in young people are still seven times more likely to their student populations. Those on the equity attend the most selective universities than the 40% side of the argument conclude that progress most disadvantaged. Access to university remains can only be made if universities take account inequitable. There is a strong correlation between of broader social factors, alongside academic social class and the likelihood of going to university attainment, in determining who gets into the top generally and to the top universities particularly. institutions. They argue that the most selective Four private schools and one college get more of universities need to take more responsibility for their students into Oxbridge than the combined the consequences of their admissions processes, efforts of 2,000 state schools and colleges. So instead of simply blaming the school system for there is a long way to go. Worse still, the progress failing to create a wider pool of talent from which of recent years is now at risk. they can recruit. A climate of fiscal constraint, a cap on student Both sides agree that access to university remains numbers and a big increase in tuition fees are inequitable. They both share the goal of making significant new headwinds which universities now access to university classless, so that those with face in making further progress on widening potential, irrespective of background, get the participation and fair access. Clearly government places they deserve. The difference between policy is a major influence here – and I examine them lies in how best to do so. Should the focus its role in the final chapter of this report – but primarily be on schools, supported by university universities themselves will need to redouble their outreach activity? Or should university admissions efforts if a university place is to be genuinely open also play a part? The answer in this report is that to all those with talent and potential. Indeed, my both approaches are needed if participation is primary focus in this report is on what universities to be wide and access is to be fair. It argues that themselves can contribute to making Britain more every university should seek to do more to widen socially mobile. participation and make access fairer. Different universities, however, should be able to place Of course, this is controversial terrain. The debate different emphasis on the respective parts of on universities and social mobility has become this agenda. deeply polarised, between those who argue for greater equity in who gets into university and Citing evidence from the US – where the top Ivy those who believe that standards will suffer unless League universities explicitly plan their admissions excellence, not equity, is the guiding principle each year to ensure diversity – this report argues governing admissions processes. that the distinction between equity and excellence is a false one. If we are to allow all individuals Those who defend excellence tend to take a view the potential to flourish, we must move beyond that a university place should be determined by this type of thinking. Prosperity in an increasingly a simple principle: attainment at A-level. They competitive global market relies on our country recognise that universities should do more to help developing the potential of all of those with schools and colleges raise standards to widen the aptitude, ability and aspiration. All universities pool of students who can apply for a place at the have a role to play in making sure that equity and most selective universities, but believe that altering excellence are friends, not enemies. admissions procedures to change the social mix at selective institutions would damage quality and threaten their, often global, reputations. In addition, Stepping up to the plate some worry that lowering entry standards would This report calls on all universities to step up to punish schools that do exceptionally well, and the plate. Many have already done so and there reward schools that are prone to failure. is a real appetite in the sector to do more. Given the headwinds they are facing, however, good On the other side stand those who believe intentions will not be enough. Universities will that universities, particularly highly selective need a new level of dogged determination if universities, need to be doing much more to Foreword and summary 3 progress is to be made. To that end I recommend worse-off ones, and between those who study that the sector, through its various representative the core academic subjects identified by the bodies, should set out publicly a clear ambition – in most selective universities as ‘facilitating’ entry the form of statistical targets – for the progress and those who do not. If access to university is to it will make over the next five years on both genuinely become classless, there will need to be widening participation and fair access. progress in closing each of these attainment gaps. Government obviously has a key role to play but In order to analyse the ways in which universities so do universities.

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