National Learner Survey Wave 3 2020-21: Initial report of COVID-19 related questions from the Lincolnshire dataset Lucy Mallinson and Dr Anthea Rose Lincoln Higher Education Research Institute (LHERI) Report This short report provides an insight into the impact of COVID-19 on learners across Lincolnshire in the context of school closures and the challenges they experienced in continuing their learning from home. The data are drawn from the annual learner survey that forms part of the national impact evaluation of Uni Connect. Key findings • Over half of all students that responded to the survey said that COVID-19 had not influenced their decision about what to do when they finish their current studies. However, 26% said that it had affected their decision either to some extent or a great deal and a further 17% were not sure. • With regards to applying to HE at aged 18 or 19, two thirds were just as likely, or more likely, to apply now as they were before COVID-19. However, almost 30% were not sure. Despite this, COVID-related reasons for both wanting to go, and not going on to HE, were low down the list. This requires further investigation and could be explored during the focus groups planned for the Summer term. • UC students were more likely to have stayed in school or college or a combination during the first lockdown in March to July 2020 than Non-UC students. This is probably because UC students are more likely to be classed as vulnerable and therefore entitled to be in school some or all of the time. • Over two thirds of students reported experiencing one or more difficulties learning from home. The biggest barrier was limited contact with tutors and/or subject teachers, with 36% of all students reporting this as an issue. • A quarter of all students lacked a quiet place to study, another quarter had caring responsibilities for other family members and 11% did not have a computer to use for school or college work. • Within gender, male students were less likely to experience difficulties studying at home than others (female students, other and prefer not to say). • Students in Years 11 and 13 (who would have been in Years 10 and 12 during the school closures) were more likely than other year groups to experience barriers to learning from home. This issue, particularly with regards to the then Year 10 students, was highlighted by Area Engagement Officers and teachers at case study schools during evaluation interviews Summer 2020 and reported in the Evaluation End of Year One report (October 2020). 1 | P a g e • Gender was associated with six out of seven of the barriers listed, the exception being lack of computer. Female students were 1.5 times more likely than male students to report that being asked to help with other family members, such as younger siblings, made it more difficult to continue learning from home. • UC learners were 1.4 times more likely than their Non-UC counterparts not to have a computer to use for school or college work. • Across all younger learners in Years 9 to 11, 12% did not have a computer for school or college work. However, analysis at a school level showed that for three schools and one college the proportion was over 25%. • The level of contact students had with their tutor and/or subject teachers varied between schools. This is a subjective measure and depends on students’ expectations. Across all Years 9 to 11, 34% of students reported this as an issue, however at six schools the proportion was between 40-48%. Across all students in Years 12 and 13 the proportion was 44%, rising to 50-59% for four schools. 2 | P a g e 1. Introduction A major part of the Uni Connect National Evaluation, run by CFE Research on behalf of Office for Students (OfS), is the learner survey capturing students’ Higher Education (HE) knowledge and aspirations. The survey has been carried out in the Autumn term (between October and December) each year since the baseline survey in 2017. Decisions about Wave 3 of the survey, due to be carried out Autumn 2020, were made by OfS in the Summer of 2020 in consultation with all participating Uni Connect partnerships. Under consideration was: whether to run the survey at all due to the current pandemic; if so whether to provide schools with a longer participation period to maximise the number of responses; and what, if any, COVID-19 related questions should be included. The decision was made to launch the survey in Autumn 2020 as in previous years, but to extend the closing date to the 31 March 2021 and to include six questions exploring the impact of COVID-19 on learners. These questions asked where students studied during the first school lockdown in March to July 2020, what circumstances, if any, made it more difficult to continue learning at home and whether COVID-19 had affected their intentions of applying to HE. The revised Wave 3 survey opened for participation at the beginning of November 2020. Schools in Lincolnshire were invited to participate and at the end of March 2021, after data cleaning, a total of 3,866 responses were collected, of which 771 (20%) were from Uni Connect learners. This represents a slightly higher proportion than the actual level of Lincolnshire’s Uni Connect learners (17%). As expected, the total responses received were less than in previous years; A total of 10,900 responses were collected in Lincolnshire during Wave 2 (2019) and 9,800 during Wave 1 (2018). The report presented here is based on an initial analysis of the six questions relating to the impact of COVID-19 (as outlined above) on participating students from schools in Lincolnshire, and on responses from all students that responded to the survey. Some demographic comparisons have been made and areas of interest are highlighted. Differences, where they exist, at a school level have also been flagged. All statistical analysis was carried out in SPSS, and a p value of less than 0.05 was the criterion for statistical significance. 3 | P a g e 2. Data cleaning process Data cleaning was carried out to remove all duplicate and incomplete responses, the process is detailed in the panel below. Data cleaning process: 1. Check all entries included participant consent – removal of those that did not 2. Removal of incomplete entries (criterion for complete: 75% of key predetermined questions) 3. Removal of duplicate responses: earliest most complete entry kept 3. Demographic background Overall, 3,866 responses were collected, the breakdown by year group and Uni Connect (UC) and non-Uni Connect (Non-UC) learners is shown in Table 1. For the purpose of this report college year groups, i.e. Level 2, Level 3 Years 1 and 2 are referred to by school year equivalent within the text, i.e. Years 11, 12 and 13 respectively. The proportion of UC learners from Years 10 and 11 responding to the survey was slightly higher than other year groups. An explanation for this is that a targeted approach for UC learners was taken by CFE Research: UC learners that had responded in previous Waves of the survey were sent an email with an invitation to participate using a unique survey link. However, whilst this increased the proportion in these year groups it does not entirely explain the difference. Table 1: Total number of participants by year group and by UC/Non-UC learners Total number of UC and Non-UC (% within year group) Year Group responses (%) UC Non-UC Year 9 1108 (28.7%) 181 (16.3%) 927 (83.7%) Year 10 1049 (27.1%) 239 (22.8%) 810 (77.2%) Year 11/Level 2 809 (20.9%) 204 (25.2%) 605 (74.9%) Year 12/Level 3 Yr1 516 (13.3%) 85 (16.5%) 431 (83.5%) Year 13/Level 3 Yr2 384 (9.9%) 62 (16.1%) 322 (83.9%) Total 3870 (100%) 771 (19.9%) 3,095 (80.1%) Demographic characteristics (gender, ethnicity, English as main language, self- reported disability, and first in family to attend HE) are summarised in Table 2. Note, not all these questions were answered in full. 4 | P a g e Table 2: Demographic details of students Wave 3 survey Year 9 Year 10 Yr 11/Level 2 Yr 12/L3 Yr1 Yr 13/L3 Yr2 Total Characteristic Detail n % n % n % n % n % n % Gender (n = 3,681) Female 590 57.5% 607 60.2% 463 60.4% 342 67.9% 228 60.8% 2,230 60.6% Male 386 37.6% 351 34.8% 267 34.9% 146 29.0% 143 38.1% 1,293 35.1% Other 24 2.3% 30 3.0% 10 1.3% 5 1.0% 3 0.8% 72 2.0% Prefer not to say 27 2.6% 21 2.1% 26 3.4% 11 2.2% 1 0.3% 86 2.3% Total 1027 100% 1009 100% 766 100% 504 100% 375 100% 3,681 100% Ethnicity (n = 3,680) White – British, Irish, Scottish, Welsh 847 82.6% 829 82.1% 633 82.6% 425 84.5% 323 83.1% 3,057 83.1% White – Other 58 5.7% 75 7.4% 49 6.4% 33 6.6% 24 6.4% 239 6.5% Black 4 0.4% 5 0.5% 9 1.2% 3 0.6% 1 0.3% 22 0.6% Asian 39 3.8% 45 4.5% 29 3.8% 18 3.6% 11 2.9% 142 3.9% Mixed 40 3.9% 25 2.5% 17 2.2% 13 2.6% 11 2.9% 106 2.9% Other 14 1.4% 9 0.9% 12 1.6% 5 1.0% 2 0.5% 42 1.1% Prefer not to say 23 2.2% 22 2.2% 17 2.2% 6 1.2% 4 1.1% 72 2.0% Total 1025 100% 1010 100% 766 100% 503 100% 376 100% 3,680 100% English main Yes 984 94.2% 941 92.6% 726 93.1% 470 92.9% 364 96.3% 3,485 93.6% language (n = 3,725) No 61 5.8% 75 7.4% 54 6.9% 36 7.1% 14 3.7% 240 6.4% Total 1045 100% 1016 100% 780 100% 506 100% 378 100% 3,725 100% Disability (n = 3,692) Yes 126 12.2% 134 13.3% 112 14.6% 87 17.3% 47 12.5% 506 13.7% No 757 73.3% 712 70.5% 545 71.0% 350 69.4% 286 75.9% 2,650 71.8% Prefer not to say 150 14.5% 164 16.2% 111 14.5% 67 13.3% 44 11.7% 536 14.5% Total 1033 100% 1010 100% 768 100% 504 100% 377 100% 3,692 100% First in family Yes 173 16.6% 178 17.6% 199 25.8% 147 29.1% 137 36.2% 834 22.5% (n = 3,708) No – Grandparent(s) 110 10.6% 95 9.4% 65 8.4% 39 7.7% 32 8.5% 341 9.2% No – Parent/Guardian(s) 305 29.3% 264 26.1% 204 26.4% 151 29.9% 120 31.7% 1044 28.2% No – Sibling(s) 152 14.6% 170 16.8% 138 17.9% 100 19.8% 63 16.7% 623 16.8% Don’t know 300 28.8% 306 30.2% 166 21.5% 68 13.5% 26 6.9% 866 23.4% Total 1040 100% 1013 100% 772 100% 505 100% 378 100% 3708 100% 5 | P a g e The overall response rate of female students (61%) was higher compared to male students (35%), this is a wider gap than in previous years: Wave 2: 55% vs 40%, Wave 1: 54% vs 42%.