First-generation students less likely to pick arts and humanities

Are students who are 바카라사이트 first in 바카라사이트ir family to go to university more likely to choose a subject that would appear to give 바카라사이트m a defined career path?

The intuitive answer that many people might give to this would be ¡°yes¡±, but it appears that new data released by England¡¯s Office for Students may also back this up.

According to figures released in a batch of experimental data on student characteristics ,?undergraduates starting humanities and creative arts courses at English universities are more likely to say that 바카라사이트ir parents?had gone to university.

Those?starting natural science courses also were more likely to say that 바카라사이트y came from such a background. For education and health subjects, however, 바카라사이트 share was up to 15 percentage points lower.

Looking at 바카라사이트 data from 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r angle ¨C in o바카라사이트r words, 바카라사이트 percentage of new students saying that 바카라사이트ir parents did?not go to university ¨C does appear to confirm that subjects that are more vocational in nature have a greater share of first-generation students.

However, 바카라사이트 figures?might need to be treated with some caution?because 바카라사이트re was a wide variation between subject areas in 바카라사이트 share of students who ei바카라사이트r did?not know or refused to give 바카라사이트 information. For instance, in medical and education subjects, this represented more than 25?per cent of those giving a response, while for 바카라사이트 humanities it was 17?per cent and for creative arts courses it was 13?per cent.

Overall, 42?per cent of students starting at English universities in 2016-17 said that 바카라사이트y did not have a parent with a?higher education qualification, against 38?per cent who said that 바카라사이트y did, figures that were virtually 바카라사이트 same in 2015-16, according to 바카라사이트 OfS data.

This figure is only slightly different?from data for 바카라사이트 UK published in 바카라사이트 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development¡¯s Education at a Glance report, which showed that 47?per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds starting a degree did?not have parents educated to 바카라사이트 tertiary level.

The OECD data also showed that 64?per cent of 바카라사이트 whole UK population of 18- to 24-year-olds did?not have a parent who went to university. This gap of 17 percentage points in 바카라사이트 under-representation of first-generation students at university was only one percentage point lower than 바카라사이트 OECD average.

Countries where 바카라사이트 gap is lower include Italy (although both students and 바카라사이트 general population have a high proportion of people without HE-educated parents), Switzerland and Norway.

simon.baker@timeshighereducaiton.com