Written evidence submitted by the Sutton
Trust
INTRODUCTION
The Sutton Trust is an independent charity, founded
and chaired by Sir Peter Lampl, that aims to improve social mobility
and address educational disadvantage. Since 1997 the Trust has
funded over 100 research studies, and has profoundly influenced
the national agenda on social mobility and education. The Trust
has spent over £35 million on a wide range of projects to
improve opportunities for non-privileged children, from the early
years, through primary and secondary schooling and access to higher
education and the professions.
These initiatives have been thoroughly evaluated
and those that have been shown to be cost effective, for example
the Trust's university summer schools, have been taken up by others,
notably Government. In April 2011 the Government awarded £125
million to the Sutton Trust as the lead charity supported by the
Impetus Trust to establish a new major programme to boost the
attainment of poor children in underperforming schools.
In this short briefing we summarise the main evidence
and policy issues that relate to access and widening participation
in higher education, and the Trust's access work, focusing in
particular on access of non-privileged pupils to leading research
universities.
Social mobility and access to elite universities
Over and above access to higher education more generally,
entry to selective universities matters because the graduates
of these institutions go on to dominate the most sought-after
and influential careers and, in general, earn significantly more
over their lifetimes. Social mobility at the top is an important
barometer of equality of opportunity in wider society.
The following table, based on Sutton Trust studies,
shows the continuing dominance of the privately educated across
a range of professions.
The proportion of non-privileged students at the
UK's most academically selective universities remains depressingly
low. While there may have been progress in widening access to
higher education more broadly, Government Performance Indicators
in 2002-03, for example, showed that one in five young degree
entrants to Russell Group institutions were from the four lower
class groups, and one in two of the wider population. These proportions
were essentially unchanged in 2007-08.
Our research also shows that entrants to selective
universities come from a relatively small number of schools and
colleges. There are approximately 3,500 providers of post-16 education
in the UK, but in the period 2002 to 2006, just 200 schools accounted
for nearly 30% of admissions to the 13 elite Sutton Trust universities,
and 48% of entry to Oxbridge.
Earlier educational gaps
While the focus of this briefing is on access to
higher education specifically, these admission trends are driven
largely by earlier gaps in attainment, as the graph below shows
for one "cohort" of pupils who undertook GCSEs in 2005/06
and entered university in 2007-08. Independent school pupils are
over 22 times more likely to enter a highly selective university
than state school children entitled to Free School Meals, and
55 times more likely than FSM pupils to gain a place at Oxford
or Cambridge.
The Trust has compiled evidence on the drivers of
these earlier education gaps, finding for example:
Advice and guidance regarding higher education is
too often poor and ill-timed at school—at least half is
judged by young people to be inadequate, not objective or unrealistic.
Almost half of state school teachers said they would
not encourage their brightest students to apply to Oxbridge, while
three fifths thought less that 30% of the entry to Oxbridge was
from state schools (when it stood at 54%).
University admissions
Even when armed with the right A-level grades, students
from non-privileged backgrounds are less likely to apply to the
most selective universities. Sutton Trust research has found:
High achieving independent school pupils on average
make twice as many applications to leading research universities
than similarly high achieving pupils from comprehensive schools.
If pupils in the state sector in England had the
same participation rates as pupils from independent schools with
similar "academic" A level results, over 4,500 extra
students could enter the 500 courses with the highest average
entry qualifications by age 19.
University degree results
At the same time, students from comprehensive schools
are likely to achieve higher class degrees at university than
independent and grammar school students with similar A-levels
and GCSE results, a study commissioned by the Sutton Trust and
the Government showed
A comprehensive school student with A-level grades
BBB for example is likely to perform as well in their university
degree as an independent or grammar school student with A-level
grades ABB or AAB—ie one to two grades higher. Comprehensive
school pupils also performed better than their similarly qualified
independent and grammar school counterparts in degrees from the
most academically selective universities and across all degree
classes, awarded to graduates in 2009.
Student finances
The Trust has a number of major concerns about the
Government's decision to allow universities in England to charge
fees of up to £9,000 a year from 2012.
A recent poll commissioned by the Sutton Trust found
that less then half of school pupils said they would apply to
university if fees rose to £7,000 a year.
Only 45% of the pupils aged 11-16 at schools in England
and Wales said they would be likely to continue to university
if fees were raised to £7,000 - and this percentage falls
to 26% with a major hike up to £10,000.
Graduate debt in England is set to reach the highest
levels in the world. According to a national survey by the Project
on Student Debt charity, US students graduating in 2009 from four
year bachelor programmes in public and private colleges left with
an average of $24,000 (£15,000) in student loan debt. The
College Board meanwhile has estimated similar levels of debt:
in 2007-08 for graduates at state colleges it was $17,700 (£11,000);
while at private institutions, it was $22,400 (£14,000).
Depending on the assumptions made, taking into account
for example maintenance grants to the poorest students, graduate
debts are likely to range between £40,000 and £50,000
for a three year programme. In other words, English graduates
will face two to three times the debt of graduates in the US.
The Trust is at present undertaking a research study
on the likely impact of fees over the lifetimes of graduates.
Trust project work
Given the rise in fees, the Trust believes that university
outreach work will need to be bolstered in coming years. The Trust
currently supports the following schemes:
Summer schools
During the last 12 years, over 10,000 students have
attended one week Sutton Trust summer schools at Bristol, Cambridge,
Nottingham, Oxford and St. Andrews' Universities. Students attending
these one-week tasters of university life are considerably more
likely to apply to, and to take up undergraduate places, at one
of the host universities compared with similar students.
Pathways to Law
The Pathways to Law programme—a £1.5 million
initiative developed by the Sutton Trust and the College of Law,
with support from major law firms, inspires and supports academically-able
students from non-privileged backgrounds interested in a career
in law. The scheme is delivered by five universities—Leeds,
London School of Economics, Manchester, Southampton and Warwick.
Reach for Excellence
The Reach for Excellence (RfE) programme at Leeds
University is an extended outreach scheme that provides support
for a group of local highly-able 16 year olds from disadvantaged
backgrounds with the aim of raising their chances of enrolling
at a research intensive university.
Academic Enrichment Programme
The Academic Enrichment Programme, which runs at
Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham Universities, is a year-long
programme offering Year 12 the opportunity to explore the university
experience in depth. It aims to develop the skills that will lead
to success at A-level and beyond and also provides on-going guidance
and support.
STEP Easter scheme at Cambridge
An example of a highly focussed programme, this scheme
targets state school pupils who already have a conditional offer
from Cambridge in maths.
Sutton Trust Academic Routes (STAR) programme
at Exeter and Leeds
The scheme—which is a modification of a US%
scheme, attached to a comprehensive access programme—aims
to support a number of academically able students from local schools
serving disadvantaged areas on a clear pathway to a research-led
university. These are the first access schemes in the UK to be
evaluated using a randomised control trial.
Policy areas
Apart from more outreach work, the Trust also believes
a number of policies could help university access:
Universities are right to take into account the educational
context of students when deciding whom to admit—alongside
other information on their achievements and potential.
The Office for Fair Access (OFFA) should remain independent
and be strengthened to include figures from outside the higher
education sector.
25% or more of extra fee income to universities should
be spent on proven outreach work such as summer schools and mentoring.
The Trust plans to publish Higher Education destination
statistics for each individual school in the country, showing
the numbers of pupils entering higher education, and selective
universities in particular.
In addition to concerns about the increase in fee
levels in England, the Trust also has concerns about the demise
of the national Aimhigher programme and the reduction in funding
for the Educational Maintenance Allowance.
27 April 2011
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