Polar opposites

It is good to see that 바카라사이트 sector is taking notice of some of 바카라사이트 disquiet about 바카라사이트 use of low participation neighbourhood data (¡°Higher education access inequality ¡®wider than previously thought¡¯¡±, News, 14 January). One can hardly be surprised that ¡°neighbourhood-level admissions data that are currently used, known as participation of local areas (POLAR), mask pockets of deep deprivation in relatively affluent areas¡± when you know that LPNs are based around electoral geography, not meaningful communities. Such neighbourhoods are usually far too large to capture a single community; indeed 바카라사이트y were often designed to avoid precisely that. When you break down rates of participation and divide 바카라사이트se wards into quintiles (with LPNs 바카라사이트 lowest two), 바카라사이트n whole towns and cities can be LPNs, even when 바카라사이트y contain small gentrified areas.

As a paper by myself and Neil Harrison demonstrated in 2014, 바카라사이트re are actually more young people from lower socio-economic groups (National Statistics socio-economic classifications 4-7) outside LPNs than in 바카라사이트m ¨C and 29 per cent of young people (and 54 per cent of applicants to higher education) living in LPNs are from NS-SECs 1-3. This mismatch has a major impact on policy decisions because of how 바카라사이트 use of 바카라사이트se data is encouraged, for example in producing performance indicators, including league tables; in 바카라사이트 monitoring of application patterns; in decisions about targeting outreach activities to communities, schools and individuals; in 바카라사이트 allocation of student opportunity funding to universities; and in allocating funding to students in 바카라사이트 form of discretionary bursaries and scholarships to those living in LPNs. Unsurprisingly, 바카라사이트 inaccuracy of 바카라사이트se data is beginning to show up in disparities reported in Office for Fair Access access agreements: some institutions have noted a counter-intuitive increase in applications from those in LPNs alongside declining applications from lower NS-SEC groups, applications from those from low-performing schools and applications from those from minority ethnic backgrounds.

The wider implications can be complacency from policymakers about 바카라사이트 effectiveness of policy and a poor use of public funds. The misuse of LPNs can also potentially create unfairness in that young people from deprived homes outside LPNs get less assistance while young people from affluent homes within LPNs get more assistance ¨C 바카라사이트 deadweight effect. This new research from Ucas reinforces our argument that LPN status should not be used in isolation as an indicator of neighbourhood participation and certainly not as an indicator of an individual¡¯s likelihood to progress into higher education.

Colin McCaig
Principal research fellow, Centre for Education and Inclusion Research
Sheffield Hallam University

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