around 88 per cent between 2016 and 2019 , but the acceptance rate for those from quintile 1 areas continued to increase each year and was 86.3 per cent in 2019 .
68 . Despite changes in Level 3 teaching and assessment practices for the cohorts applying in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic – and the resultant fluctuation in acceptance rates – the overall gap in acceptance rates remained mostly unchanged in these two years . In 2021 , applicants from the most represented areas were 1.3 percentage points more likely to be accepted to start a higher education than applicants from the least represented areas .
Figure 7 : Gaps in acceptance rates between POLAR3 quintiles 1 and 5
69 . If this gap in acceptance rates closed entirely , then the gap in the placed rate would only reduce from 26.5 to 25.2 percentage points . This demonstrates that the greatest area for improvement in terms of closing the gap in participation between learners from POLAR3 quintiles 1 and 5 is in closing the gap in application rates . These findings are summarised in Table 3 below .
70 . Table B3 in Annex B reports the number of learners in the Key Stage 4 population living in POLAR3 quintile 1 areas and the number living in quintile 5 areas for each cohort applying at age 18 between the 2016 and 2021 UCAS application cycles . These are the underlying numbers of learners from which the application rates , high tariff application rates and placed rates in Figures 2 to 5 above are calculated .
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