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需要解决传统上代表性不足的群体的成就和愿望较差的问题。然而，最近，政策制定者开始认识到，有必要对大学招生决定的公平性进行审查。目前还没有确凿的证据表明，大学录取决定是否公平，即仅仅反映申请人以前的学术成就。在这个项目中，我们问大学申请人是否同样有可能被提供大学的地方，如果他们是同样优秀的资格，我们探索在何种程度上不同方面的先前成绩解释为什么大学申请人从社会阶层较低的背景和少数民族群体不太可能比他们的中产阶级和白色同龄人提供大学的地方。我们还问到，通过使用“背景数据”来确定来自弱势背景的学生，尽管没有通常入学所需的成绩，但他们有可能在大学里表现出色，在多大程度上可以更公平地接受高等教育。我们使用关于学生、大学申请者和大学新生的关联数据来回答这些问题，这使我们能够研究哪些因素影响人们是否申请大学以及他们是否被大学录取。我们将与公平准入办公室、英国大学和平等挑战单位等主要组织合作，与大学分享我们的调查结果和建议，帮助他们提高招生政策的公平性。

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.