PROGRESSION OF COLLEGE LEARNERS TO HIGHER EDUCATION IN LONDON 2005 – 2009 Prepared by the University of Greenwich for Linking London partners and co-sponsors who include the Association of Colleges, Barking and Dagenham College, Bromley College of Further and Higher Education, Edge Foundation, Ealing, Hammersmith & West London College, London Councils’ Young People’s Education and Skills team, Royal Holloway, University of London, University of the Arts London, Uxbridge College and West Thames College. Authors: Hugh Joslin and Sharon Smith University of Greenwich [email protected] ++44(0)20 8331 9487 The authors would like to thank Sue Betts, Director of Linking London and Debi Hayes, Director of Partnerships at the University of Greenwich for their support for this project and also thank Rachel Thompson for her work on the databases and tables. The views expressed in this report are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of Linking London, its member organisations or its co-sponsors. Linking London Birkbeck, University of London Egmont House, 25-31 Tavistock Place London WC1H 9SF http://www.linkinglondon.ac.uk October 2013 Linking London Partners – Birkbeck, University of London, Goldsmiths, University of London, King’s College London, London South Bank University, Ravensbourne, The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of Greenwich, University of Roehampton, University of Westminster, Barnet and Southgate College, City of Westminster College, The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London, City and Islington College, Kensington and Chelsea College, Lambeth College, Lilian Baylis Technology School Sixth Form, Morley College, Newham Sixth Form College, Westminster Kingsway College, Working Men’s College, London Region, City and Guilds, Hillcroft College, the Institute of Administrative Management, JISC Regional Support Centre London, Open College Network London Region, TUC Unionlearn, London Councils Young People’s Education and Skills Board. 2 Foreword It gives me great pleasure to introduce this report to you after twelve months of commissioning Hugh Joslin and Sharon Smith of the University of Greenwich, fund raising and working with over forty organisations and institutions. The report which examines data on the progression of college learners over a five year period (2005-2009) in London is the result of partners, and co-funders agreeing to collectively fund this work. I am grateful to Linking London members, and twelve co-sponsoring organisations who together saw the importance of establishing a benchmark on progression data which we can now examine, use and build on. I am particularly grateful to our two researchers Hugh and Sharon for their work, and to Debi Hayes from the University of Greenwich who oversaw the contracts and allowed the project to happen. I recommend the report to you, it requires careful reading. The conclusion has been deliberately factual and it is now for us collectively to work out what the data tells us and how we can use it effectively to plan for the future. The reports do not claim to tell the whole story of progression from level three to four in London (we need the available data on school leavers and the independent schools to do that) but they do start to help us look at how the progression of college leavers and apprentices into higher level learning might be improved. I look forward to working with all our partners, using this report, to help raise the level of student progression and success. Sue Betts, Director of Linking London 3 CONTENTS Foreword ............................................................................................................................................ 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................... 6 Key Results ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Characteristics of the London FE college cohorts ...................................................................... 7 Higher education progression trends ........................................................................................ 7 Detailed higher education progression for 2005-06 cohort tracked for five years ................... 7 Higher education achievement .................................................................................................. 8 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 9 Higher level skills in the London labour market ................................................................................ 9 Historical context ............................................................................................................................... 9 Research context.............................................................................................................................. 10 2. Methodology ............................................................................................................................ 13 2.1 Identifying successful level 3 learners for the tracked cohort ................................................. 13 2.2 First time entrants..................................................................................................................... 14 2.3 Dataset matching ...................................................................................................................... 14 3. Characteristics of the tracked London college level 3 cohortS................................................ 16 3.1 Gender ...................................................................................................................................... 16 3.2 Age group .................................................................................................................................. 16 3.3 Home domicile .......................................................................................................................... 17 3.4 Level 3 qualification type .......................................................................................................... 17 3.5 Borough Breakdown ................................................................................................................. 18 3.6 FE provider breakdown ............................................................................................................. 19 3.7 Ethnicity .................................................................................................................................... 21 3.8 Ethnicity and age of tracked population ................................................................................... 22 3.9 Ethnicity and FE qualification .................................................................................................... 23 3.10 Tracked FE population relative deprivation ...................................................................... 24 4. higher education progression trends ....................................................................................... 26 4.1 Longitudinal progression by HE funding type ........................................................................... 26 4.2 Immediate higher education progression trends with an age breakdown for the five FE cohorts ............................................................................................................................................. 26 4.3 Immediate HE progression trends with funding breakdown – comparing first (2005-06) and last (2009-10) FE cohort ................................................................................................................... 27 4.4 Immediate higher education progression rates of all five FE cohorts by higher education delivery ............................................................................................................................................. 28 4.5 Borough level higher education progression trends ................................................................ 29 4 4.6 Immediate higher education progression trends by gender for each of the five FE cohorts .. 31 4.7 Immediate higher education progression rates for each FE cohort by FE qualification type .. 31 4.8 Breakdown of HE qualification type of the higher education entrants for each FE tracked cohort ............................................................................................................................................... 32 4.9 Immediate higher education progression rate trends by ethnic group ................................... 33 4.10 Immediate higher education progression rates by POLAR3 quintiles .............................. 34 4.11 Higher education progression rate trends by disadvantage indicators ............................ 35 5. Detailed progression patterns for the 2005-06 level 3 FE cohort ........................................... 36 5.1 Progression by age, higher education funding type and timing of higher education entry .... 36 5.2 Level 3 mode and higher education progression ..................................................................... 37 5.3 FE mode and HE mode .............................................................................................................. 37 5.4 Mode and delivery ...................................................................................................................