Evaluating the fairness of admissions to UK higher education

该项目旨在评估英国大学录取的公平性，特别是高度选择性的学位课程。关于公平接受高等教育的辩论往往侧重于解决传统上代表性不足群体的较差成就和抱负的必要性。然而，最近，政策制定者开始认识到，也有必要审查大学招生决定的公正性。目前还没有确凿的证据表明，仅仅反映申请者以前的学术成就这一狭义的大学招生决定是否公平。在这个项目中，我们询问，如果大学申请者具有同样的资质，他们是否同样有可能获得大学录取机会，我们还探索了不同方面的先前学历在多大程度上解释了为什么来自较低社会阶层和少数族裔群体的大学申请者获得大学录取的可能性低于他们的中产阶级和白人同龄人。我们还提出了一个问题，那就是通过使用“背景数据”，可以在多大程度上使接受高等教育的机会变得更加公平，以确定来自弱势背景的学生，尽管他们没有通常的入学要求，但仍有潜力在大学里取得好成绩。我们使用关于在校学生、大学申请者和大学新生的关联数据来回答这些问题，这使我们能够检查哪些因素影响人们是否申请大学以及他们是否获得大学学位。我们将与包括公平入学办公室、英国大学和平等挑战小组在内的主要组织合作，与大学分享我们的调查结果和建议，以帮助它们改善招生政策的公平性。

This project sets out to evaluate the fairness of admission to UK universities in general, and to highly selective degree programmes in particular. Debates about fair access to higher education have tended to focus on the need to address the poorer attainment and aspirations of those from traditionally under-represented groups. Recently, however, policy-makers have begun recognise the need to also scrutinise the fairness of university admissions decisions. Currently there is no conclusive evidence as to whether university admissions decisions are fair in the narrow sense of simply reflecting the previous academic achievements of applicants. In this project we ask whether university applicants are equally likely to be offered university places if they are equally well-qualified, and we explore the extent to which different aspects of prior attainment explain why university applicants from lower social class backgrounds and ethnic minority groups are less likely to be offered university places than their middle class and white peers. We also ask to what extent access to higher education might be made fairer through the use of 'contextual data' to identify students from disadvantaged backgrounds with the potential to do well at university despite not having the grades usually required for admission. We answer these questions using linked data on school pupils, university applicants, and university entrants, which enables us to examine what factors influence whether or not people apply to university and whether or not they are offered a university place. Working with key organisations including the Office for Fair Access, Universities UK, and the Equality Challenge Unit, we will share our findings and recommendations with universities to help them improve the fairness of their admissions policies.