Widening Participation in HE: A Comprehensive Analysis of Its Impact on Pre- and Post-16 Outcomes
Graduates enjoy several advantages, including higher earnings, better job prospects, improved health outcomes, and greater resilience during economic downturns compared to non-graduates. However, despite a significant increase in higher education participation in recent decades, access to higher education remains largely contingent on one’s family’s socio-economic background. Disadvantaged students are four times less likely to attend university than their more privileged counterparts. Thus, increasing the participation of disadvantaged students in HE is crucial for reducing inequalities and enhancing social mobility.
The UK’s, Widening Participation in Higher Education (WP) initiative has been a cornerstone of government education policy since 1997. This initiative comprises two key strategies. The first involves outreach activities, such as university open days and interactions with graduates, designed to inspire and elevate the aspirations and academic achievements of underrepresented youth, encouraging them to pursue higher education. The second strategy focuses on contextualised admissions, where universities consider applicants’ socio-economic backgrounds alongside their academic performance when making admission decisions, aiming to identify untapped potential.
Despite the substantial investment in the WP program (£60 million expenditure on outreach activities in 2020/21) a comprehensive national evaluation of its effectiveness has been lacking. I aim to close this gap by utilising extensive data from Understanding Society, linked with the National Pupil Database, outreach activity expenditure records, and contextualised admissions data. Through fixed effect models, I will analyse their impact on students’ aspirations, behaviour, educational choices, academic performance at Key Stage 4 and 5, and higher education participation.
