Underprivileged teenagers more likely to give up their university ambitions

Early intervention to maintain and raise expectations could increase the number of teenagers from less privileged backgrounds entering higher education, finds a new study by the UCL Institute of Education (IOE). The research, published in the Oxford Review of Education, analysed how young people's expectations of applying to university change between the ages of 14 and 17, finding that those from less advantaged backgrounds were more likely to stop, and less likely to start or consider applying, than their more advantaged peers. This was true even when comparing individuals with the same test scores. Through analysis of a survey of 14-20-year-olds conducted between 2004 and 2010, Dr Jake Anders from the IOE found that a substantial proportion of young people changed their minds about whether they were planning to apply to university - with the change running in both directions - and that socioeconomic background played a significant part in whether expectations changed. The study used data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England. Compared to the most advantaged fifth of young people, the least advantaged fifth had more than twice the probability of switching from being 'likely to apply' to 'unlikely to apply'. Conversely, the most advantaged fifth had more than twice the probability of changing from being 'unlikely to apply' to 'likely to apply'.