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

高等教育是英国政府政策的优先事项，但进入大学的机会仍然不平等，富裕家庭在大学生中的比例过高。此外，在大学生中，不平等现象继续出现，辍学率、学位等级和劳动力市场结果因社会经济地位而异。任何旨在减少大学成果不平等的政策只有在明确理解其基本机制的情况下才能取得成功。该提案旨在了解社会经济地位的差异如何影响对自己学术能力的看法，对大学成功因素的信念，承担风险和投资未来的意愿，信息获取和求职策略是英国大学毕业生在大学学业和劳动力市场结果方面不平等的原因。我们首先建议使用关联的行政数据来提供一个全面的在过去的十年里，父母的社会经济地位和辍学率，学位课程，就业，收入和参与研究生教育在英国之间的关联的描述。然后，我们建议探讨这些不平等现象出现的具体机制，并评估可以减少这些不平等现象的干预措施。早期的文献指出了几个可能破坏弱势学生在大学取得成功的因素。来自弱势群体的学生往往更偏向于现在，不太可能提前计划和投资未来;他们对自己的学术能力和大学成绩的其他相关方面的信息往往较少;他们的社交网络中往往包含更多失业或领取救济金的人。通过对一组大学生进行一项新的实地实验，我们旨在评估干预措施是否旨在提供有关大学成果与劳动力市场成果之间关系的新信息，并改变学生的时间观念。（即倾向于生活在过去或只生活在当下），改变学生的信仰，偏好，工作习惯，求职战略，并最终影响他们的学术和劳动力市场的成果。使用二手数据分析，我们还将探讨是否在大学考试中的早期表现影响辍学和学位班不同的社会经济特征，并检查是否社会经济差异在获得社交网络和当地劳动力市场的就业和收入不平等的部分原因。这一建议在几个方面都具有很大的创新性。它采用了各种方法，如随机实验，专门用于揭示因果关系。它分析了几个不同的数据集，包括链接的行政记录，一个新的实地研究，涉及小组调查和定性访谈。它采用多学科方法，结合经济学和心理学的决策模型，并收集期望，偏好和其他重要的个人特征的测量。最重要的是，它侧重于大学成绩和劳动力市场结果不平等现象发生的机制和程度，并评价具体的干预措施：因此，它是提供具体政策建议的理想场所。

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.