White Working Class Males in British Higher Education
Online survey analytical strategy It is generally considered that the HEFCE POLAR3 ( Participation of Local Areas data ) is an appropriate measure of educational disadvantages since it captures the trend in young participation to HE and therefore gives a sense of whether residents have a tradition of HE progression at the level of geographical wards . The POLAR3 categories local wards based on 5 quintiles where quintile 1 represents the lowest young participation ( most disadvantaged ), and quintile 5 areas with the highest rates ( most advantaged ), according to the combined participation rates of those aged 18 between 2005 and 2009 , who entered HE between 2005-06 and 2010-11 academic years . HEFCE has also produced participation gap data for the local areas , which takes account of educational attainment factors ( key stage 4 attainment ) and ethnicity to show any gaps between actual young HE participation and what might be expected given the education outcomes and ethnic mix . In quintile 1 participation is much lower than expected ( i . e . the areas considered to be where there is an ‘ unexplained ’ gap in participation based on educational attainment and ethnicity ) whereas quintile 5 has higher than expected participation .
The HEFCE gaps analyses and POLAR3 data was used to provide a categorisation of respondents to the survey where possible . Because of the issues around how the survey was disseminated along with the problems of respondents omitting to provide a postcode , or giving only partial postcodes , the strategy was implemented as follows : Postcodes where given were matched to Census Area Statistical ( CAS ) wards , which then provided the young participation rate and categorisation into POLAR3 and HEFCE participation gap quintiles . 4 In addition , based on their postcodes , these respondents were coded into either Southampton or ‘ Rest of area ’. The rest of area group mainly comprised respondents in Hampshire . There were a small number who gave postcodes in other areas . 5 Where a partial postcode was given , the respondent was categorised as within a broad geography defined as either ‘ Southampton ’ or ‘ Rest of area ’. Where a postcode was not given but the school was known , the respondents was categorised as within the area signified by the rest of their school population . Remaining respondents were categorised as ‘ Not known ’.
The responses received were broken down as follows :
Table 2 : Survey responses by participation gap quintiles |
Southampton |
Rest of area |
Total |
|
No . |
% |
No . |
% |
No . |
% |
Participation gap Q1 |
33 |
36 % |
7 |
11 % |
40 |
25 % |
Participation gap Q2 |
15 |
16 % |
7 |
11 % |
22 |
14 % |
Participation gap Q3 |
8 |
9 % |
4 |
6 % |
12 |
8 % |
Participation gap Q4 |
|
0 % |
8 |
12 % |
8 |
5 % |
Not known |
35 |
38 % |
40 |
61 % |
75 |
48 % |
Total |
91 |
100 % |
66 |
100 % |
157 |
100 % |
As Table 2 shows there were a relatively large proportion with unknown POLAR3 data ( just under half ) reflecting the difficulties in obtaining and matching postcode information from the target group of respondents . Amongst those that did provide a valid postcode the largest group ( 48 %) were within areas with the largest participation gaps ( HEFCE gaps quintile 1 ). As might be expected there were differences in relation between respondents in Southampton and other areas ( Figure 1 ). Almost two-thirds ( 62 %) of respondents from Southampton with known young HE participation were from quintile 1 areas ( with the highest gap in participation ) compared to around a fifth ( 21 %) of those with known postcode from areas outside of Southampton .
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4 The analyses used the postcode to CAS Ward lookup released for November 2015 .
https :// borders . ukdataservice . ac . uk / pcluts . html
5
Two respondents had postcodes out of Hampshire ( inc . Bracknell Forest , and Berkshire )