INEQUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION OUTCOMES IN THE UK: SUBJECTIVE EXPECTATIONS, PREFERENCES, AND ACCESS TO INFORMATION

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Higher education is a priority in UK government policy, but access to university is still unequal, with well-off families being strongly over-represented among university students. Moreover, among university students, inequalities continue to emerge with differences in dropout rates, degree class and labour market outcomes by socio-economic status. Any policy aimed at reducing inequality in university outcomes can only be successful if the underlying mechanisms are clearly understood. This proposal aims to understand how differences by socio-economic status in perceptions about own academic ability, beliefs about the factors to success at university, willingness to take risk and invest in the future, access to information and job search strategy contribute to inequality in university attainment and labour market outcomes of university graduates in the UK.We first propose to use linked administrative data to provide a comprehensive description of the association between parental socio-economic status and dropout rates, degree class, employment, earnings, and participation in post-graduate education in the UK over the last decade. We then propose to explore specific mechanisms for the emergence of these inequalities and evaluate interventions that could reduce them. Earlier literature points to several factors which may undermine disadvantaged students' success at university. Students from disadvantaged groups tend to be more present-biased and less likely to plan ahead and invest in the future; they tend to have less information about their own academic ability and other relevant aspects of university outcomes; and they tend to have social networks containing more people in unemployment or on benefits. By conducting a new field experiment on a cohort of university students, we aim to assess whether interventions aimed at providing new information about the relationship between university outcomes and labour market outcomes, and at changing students' time perspective (i.e. the tendency to live in the past or only for the moment), modify students' beliefs, preferences, working habits, job search strategy and ultimately impact their academic and labour market outcomes. Using secondary data analysis, we will also explore whether early performance in university exams affects dropout and degree class differently by socio-economic characteristics, and examine whether socio-economic differences in access to social networks and local labour markets are partly responsible for inequality in employment and earnings. This proposal is highly innovative on several dimensions. It employs a variety of methods, such as randomised experiments, specifically intended to uncover causal relationships. It analyses several different datasets, including linked administrative records, a new field study involving panel surveys, and qualitative interviews. It adopts a multidisciplinary approach, combining models of decision making from economics and psychology and collecting measures of expectations, preferences, and other important individual traits. Most importantly, it focuses on the mechanisms through which, and the levels at which, inequalities in university attainment and labour market outcomes occurs and evaluate specific interventions: it therefore is ideally placed to provide concrete policy recommendation.