Do less-advantaged students avoid prestigious universities? An applicant-centred approach to understanding UCAS decision-making

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Do less-advantaged students avoid prestigious universities? An applicant-centred approach to understanding UCAS decision-making

McGrath, S; Rogers, L; (2021) Do less-advantaged students avoid prestigious universities? An applicant-centred approach to understanding UCAS decision-making. British Educational Research Journal 10.1002/berj.3710. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

Less-advantaged students are under-represented at prestigious universities, but can we infer that they actively avoid them? This research measured university applicants’ knowledge of 115 UK universities. Using card-sort tasks within an interview format, 56 Year 13 students from different types of 16–19 education described how they chose five courses for their application form. Significant cross-cohort trends in knowledge and understanding demonstrated the influence of different educational environments, but within-cohort variation showed that applicant characteristics could over-ride environmental factors. The only cohort where every student understood relative status was an independent school providing individual, career-focused guidance. Limited resources in state-sector schools and colleges necessitated ‘opt-in’ models of guidance, meaning that only highly motivated students were well-informed. When students knew that universities are ranked by national league tables, this informed their decision-making strategy, but reliance on word-of-mouth rather than fact-based information resulted in some students over-estimating status and graduate outcomes. A new conceptual framework blending developmental and cognitive psychology explained persistent class-based progression trends whilst demonstrating how personal agency or educational interventions enabled some less-advantaged students to enter prestigious universities. There was no evidence that prestigious universities were actively avoided, but some students had insufficient knowledge or understanding to make status-based distinctions.

Type:	Article
Title:	Do less-advantaged students avoid prestigious universities? An applicant-centred approach to understanding UCAS decision-making
Open access status:	An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI:	10.1002/berj.3710
Publisher version:	https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3710
Language:	English
Additional information:	© 2021 The Authors. British Educational Research Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Educational Research Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords:	educational barriers, progression and transition, social justice, UCAS decision‐making
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 - Education, Practice and Society
URI:	https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10124627