Adamecz-Völgyi, A;
Henderson, M;
Shure, N;
(2019)
Is 'First in Family' a Good Indicator for Widening University Participation?
(IZA Discussion Paper
12826).
IZA Institute of Labor Economics: Bonn, Germany.
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Abstract
Universities use ‘first in family’ or ‘first generation’ as an indicator to increase the diversity of their student intake, but little is known about whether it is a good indicator of disadvantage. We use nationally representative, longitudinal survey data linked to administrative data from England to provide the first comprehensive analysis of this measure. We employ parametric probability (logit) and non-parametric classification (random forest) models to look at its relative predictive power of university participation and graduation. We find that being first in family is an important barrier to university participation and graduation, over and above other sources of disadvantage. This association seems to operate through the channel of early educational attainment. Our findings indicate that the first in family indicator could be key in efforts to widen participation at universities.
| Type: | Working / discussion paper |
|---|---|
| Title: | Is 'First in Family' a Good Indicator for Widening University Participation? |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Publisher version: | https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/12826/is-first... |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | socioeconomic gaps, higher education, widening participation, first in family, first generation, educational mobility, machine learning, predictive models |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10087947 |
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