Figure 3 : Gaps in application rates between POLAR3 quintiles 1 and 2 combined and POLAR3 quintile 5
High tariff application rate
53 . Figure 4 shows the difference in the proporton of learners from the most and least represented areas that applied to more selective higher education providers ( those with high average ‘ tariff scores ’) since 2012 .
54 . In 2021 , learners from the most represented areas were 27.3 percentage points more likely to apply to a high tariff provider than learners from the least represented areas . By comparison , this gap stood at 22.4 percentage points in 2012 , which means it has since widened by 4.9 percentage points . The increase in this gap for the 2021 cohort is consistent with findings that UCAS reported on A-level results day . 28
28
See www . ucas . com / corporate / news-and-key-documents / news / record-number-students-accepted-theirfirst-choice-university .
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