White Working Class Males in British Higher Education
Narrowing down to just explore the answers provided by traditional age respondents ( those who are 17-19 years old ) provides a more direct comparison with the UCAS findings . The figure below reveals the distribution of responses from traditional age respondents ( n : 484 ). When the responses from mature students are removed , the percent of the respondents who selected 16- 19 years old as their response is even higher , at 58 percent .
Figure 36 : What age were you when you felt sure that you would apply to university ? Traditional age ( 17-19 years old ) survey respondents ( n : 484 )
Considering that the UCAS ( 2016 ) findings revealed that 46 percent of students in low participation neighbourhoods , who are likely to be working class , are deciding that they will apply to university between the ages of 16-19 and that 45 percent of all male students decide between 16-19 , it was unexpected that the data from this research project suggests that white , working class males may be significantly more likely to make decisions about higher education later than their peers . As the figure below shows , 66 percent of the survey respondents who are male , British , first-generation , and traditional age students indicated that they became certain about applying to university between the ages of 16-19 . That 66 percent figure is significantly higher than the 58 percent indicated by all traditional age peers who completed the first year survey at the university and even higher than the 46 percent of respondents from low participation neighbourhoods indicated in the UCAS ( 2016 ) report .
48