Flagging applications to HE from rural students while maintening an equitable treatment to all applications within an admission portal

Author(s):

Laurence Lasselle(presenting / submitting)Michael Johnson

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 10 D, Student Movement and Migration

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-25

15:30-17:00

Room:

NM-J104

Chair:

Gergely Kováts

Contribution

The process of applications to higher education (HE) undergraduate courses in the UK is now paperless. This technological move has enhanced this process twofold. Firstly, it supports an identical screening of each application. Secondly, each institution’s admission portal connected to the national system systematically highlights any non-traditional application according to each institution’s criteria.

Our paper explains how a further use of technology that synthetises secondary school data can support an institution’s policy to widen access and participation from students beyond its traditional catchment areas, in particular those living in remote areas.

Recent research has highlighted that students from Scottish rural communities are less likely to progress to HE than students from elsewhere and the majority of these students do not live in the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland. In the Scottish context regarding widening access to university, this could be problematic. Indeed, the aim of the current policy of the Scottish government is to reach at least 20% of university entrants to come from the most deprived 20% of the population. As a result, although Scotland is rural at 75% and the progression to HE of these students is lower than the national average, many of them are not included in this current policy.

Our paper explains how this exclusion could be prevented at institutional level thanks to a further use of technology. It describes how to integrate publicly secondary school data into the screening process of an institution’s admission portal while maintining equitable treatment of all applicants to the institution’s courses.

Method

We build indicators that summarise data and information: - contained in the applications of prospective students according to three criteria: academic potential, diversity, and retention and support - of the secondary school (including attainment) the prospective students attend. We use dataset from the Higher Education Statistical Agency and the Scottish Governement.

Expected Outcomes

Our paper shows twofold. First, it highlights how an institution has reflected on its admissions practice, questioned itself on the best way to recognise applications from non-traditional backgrounds and beyond its traditional catchment areas and responded to multiple contextual changes (e.g. fee regimes, nationwide paperless admissions system). Secondly, the paper shows how to construct a metrics composed of elements gathering information about the applicant’s academic potential, personal characteristics and geographic and educational characteristics of the school the applicant attends. This construction does not depend on the institution's characteristics and can be replicated by any institution. The metrics emphasises how data and information released by government and other organisations can be used more effectively by HE institutions.

References

Boliver, V., (2013) How fair is access to more prestigious universities?, The British Journal of Sociology, 64(2), 344-364. Commission on Widening Access (2015) Interim report, Scottish Government. Online at http: //www.commissiononwideningaccess.co.uk/#!publications/ca60. Gibbons, S. & Vignoles, A. (2012) Geography, choice and participation in higher education in England, Regional Science and Urban Economics, 42, 98-113. Kintrea, K., St Clair, R. & Houston, M. (2011) The Influence of Parents, Places and Poverty on Educational Attitudes and Aspirations. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Lasselle, L., Kirby, G. & Macpherson, R. (2015) Access to Higher Education for Rural Communities: An Exploratory Analysis. Online at https://hdl.handle.net/10023/7553. Lasselle, L., McDougall-Bagnall, J. & Smith, I. (2014) Schooling effects on university degree performance: evidence from an elite Scottish institution. Oxford Review of Education 40(3), 293-314. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2008) OECD Rural Policy Reviews Scotland, UK. Paris: OECD. Riddell, S. (2014) Key Informants’ Views of Higher Education in Scotland, Working Paper 5, Centre for Research in Education Inclusion and Diversity, University of Edinburgh. Scottish Government. 2014. “An education system for everyone – the foundation of a fairer Scotland.” Accessed November 19, 2015. http://news.scotland.gov.uk/Speeches-Briefings/First-Minister-David-Hume-Institute-166a.aspx. Scottish Government. 2012. “SIMD, Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.” Accessed November 19, 2015. http://simd.scotland.gov.uk/publication-2012. Skerratt, S., et al. (2014) 2014: Rural Scotland in Focus Report. Edinburgh: Rural Policy Centre, SRUC, Scotland’s Rural College. Schwartz, S. (2004) Fair admissions to Higher Education: Recommendations for good practice. Online at http://www.admissions-review.org.uk/. SPA (2013) Assessing attainment and future potential. Online at: http://www.spa.ac.uk/information/contextualdata/. Walsh, S., Flannery, D. & Cullinan, J. (2015) Geographic accessibility to higher education on the island of Ireland, Irish Educational Studies, 34 (1), 5-23.

Author Information

Laurence Lasselle (presenting / submitting)

University of St Andrews, United Kingdom

Michael Johnson