Final report of the Access Data Short-Life Working Group

Context

Background to widening access measures

Widening access to higher education is a priority for Scottish Government and for higher education institutions. We want every child, no matter their background, to have an equal chance of entering and succeeding in higher education. Currently, students with experience of socioeconomic disadvantage are less likely to go to university than their peers. Policies and initiatives are in place to try and reduce the barriers faced by these students, including adjusted offers of entry to university.

Institutions use a variety of measures to identify these students when they apply to university. The key measure used for reporting progress against national targets is the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). This is an area-based measure of deprivation which combines multiple data sources and domains to provide an overall ranking of areas in terms of deprivation. This is currently used as a proxy measure for the purposes of widening access, in part due to being a well-rounded national measure of deprivation which is widely used and understood across the public sector(A Blueprint for Fairness: Final Report of the Commission on Widening Access - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)). Individuals who reside in the 20% most deprived areas (SIMD20) are considered a priority group. Recently HESA (Location, location, location: An examination into the value of place-based measures in widening participation | HESA) explored the association between neighbourhood deprivation and degree attainment. Their exploratory analysis showed that irrespective of parental education, individuals from more deprived areas were more likely to have lower attainment. This suggests that location can have an important impact on an individual’s educational outcomes.

However, it is acknowledged that there are limitations with the use of SIMD as a proxy measure. As an area-based measure, SIMD does not capture individual-level deprivation. This means that there may be individuals experiencing deprivation living in non-deprived SIMD areas who are not captured by this data. This is particularly pertinent for learners in more rural parts of Scotland. As a national measure of deprivation, the most deprived data zones tend to be clustered in large urban areas, particularly in the west of Scotland.

For example, the Orkney and Shetland Islands have no SIMD20 data zones, while respectively 8% and 9% of the secondary school roll are estimated to be in receipt of Free School Meals (FSM) (Table 3). This means that there may be learners who have experienced socioeconomic disadvantage throughout their secondary schooling, but who are not eligible for a contextual offer to university using SIMD under current targets and criteria.

For universities in or near local authorities with a lower proportion of SIMD20 data zones (e.g. in the North East), this may also mean fewer learners and applicants in the local area who can be identified as meeting widening access criteria. This may make it more difficult for institutions to meet SIMD targets as they become more reliant on recruiting widening access learners from other parts of the country, who may not wish to or be able to travel to institutions further from home. Professor Sir Peter Scott, the previous Commissioner for Fair Access (Commissioner), commented that while “nationally the fair access target is still best expressed in terms of SIMD […] institutional SIMD targets are no longer fit-for-purpose” (Maintaining the Momentum Towards Fair Access: annual report 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)) for this reason. Further detail on these targets in set out in Section 3.

The issue of widening access measures and data sources has been raised in a number of different forums, including:

Commission on Widening Access

In its final report in 2016 (Report from the Access Data Working Group.pdf (www.gov.scot)), the Commission on Widening Access (CoWA) made the following statement on widening access data:

“The Commission recognises the value of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) as a marker for deprivation and it is our view that it should continue to be used for tracking, monitoring and targets relating to fair access in the coming years. But we also recognise that a more individualised approach to identify those from disadvantaged backgrounds is essential when providing support or making decisions about individual learners.” (p13)

Recommendation 31 of the CoWA was therefore to “develop a consistent and robust set of measures to identify access students by 2018”.

Access Data Working Group

The Access Data Working Group (ADWG) was set up in 2018 to investigate further measures to identify access students, and the group published its final outputs in 2019 (Report from the Access Data Working Group.pdf (www.gov.scot)). The group undertook initial analysis of potential measures to identify widening access students. The group’s final recommendations were, in summary:

a) To include a Free School Meals registration measure to identify learners from low income households within schools who apply to higher education directly from school, or shortly after;

b) To consider including a measure based on Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) income data to identify older or independent students from low income households within colleges or applying to university from college; and

c) To explore the direct collection of income information at the point of application to Higher Education Institutions.

In relation to the recommendations, the group acknowledged that issues of quality, legal and practical access to data remained, noting that these would need to be resolved before moving forward with the work.

Commissioner for Fair Access

The final report of the Commission on Widening Access included a recommendation to develop a “robust set of measures to identify access students” (A Blueprint for Fairness: Final Report of the Commission on Widening Access - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)) and the previous Commissioner also recommended the use of a “basket of measures” to identify those who may benefit from widening access policies and admissions processes.

In his fifth and final report, Sir Peter’s recommendation was that:

“National targets on fair access should continue to be defined in terms of SIMD. But institutional SIMD targets are no longer fit-for-purpose. Instead institutions should be able to use their own basket of measures to determine their own targets. But these new targets should be strictly policed by the SFC through outcome agreements.” (p8)

Professor John McKendrick was appointed as Commissioner in January 2023, and has contributed to the Access Data Short-Life Working Group’s (SLWG) discussions.

Widening access measures currently in use

While SIMD is how the main national (and institutional) targets are expressed (see Section 3 for discussion of SIMD), a range of widening access measures are currently in use by colleges and higher education institutions to identify widening access students as part of their institutional admissions processes. No measures currently available to universities on a national scale (such as SIMD) capture deprivation at a household- or individual-level.

Measures in use may include:

• Applicants from SIMD20 and SIMD40 postcodes;
• Applicants from schools with lower rates of progression to higher education;
• Applicants from college;
• Applicants who have participated in access or pre-entry programmes;
• Applicants who are seeking asylum or who have refugee status;
• Applicants who are estranged from family;
• Applicants who are carers; and
• Applicants who have care experience.

The use of a range of measures by institutions reflects the complexity of both the system and the experiences of learners. Following the recommendation of the previous Commissioner, this group explored the use of a “basket of measures” in order to enable institutions to use a range of metrics to best identify their widening access learners. As part of this process, measures such as Free School Meals and Scottish Child Payment could be used alongside other measures to meet the particular needs of institutions and their learners.

Current data sharing between UCAS and universities

UCAS (The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) runs an undergraduate admissions service for providers in the UK. Applicants apply to specific courses and institutions via UCAS and UCAS then shares data on applicants with each provider. This process means that providers do not generally need to process or verify data directly from applicants (but they do verify data in some instances, such as care experience status, for example). For the latest 2023 cycle, UCAS introduced a self-reported FSM status in the application form.

As well as receiving data directly from applicants on FSM status, UCAS receives additional data which they match with applications before providing this to higher education institutions. This can be done at various levels including at school level (e.g. Education Maintenance Allowance uptake per school to understand proportions of school roll below certain household income thresholds), or at an individual level. For example, UCAS are given data on FSM recipients by England, Wales and Northern Ireland administrations. They match this data to applications received that year, allowing providers in the respective nations to know which of their applicants have this ‘flag’. This process supports providers with verification of collected data from applicants and prevents duplication of effort across the sector.

This has not been possible in Scotland to date. Currently data on FSM recipients in Scotland is only shared between local authorities and the Scottish Government for statistical and research purposes, meaning it cannot be shared under data protection legislation. UCAS are therefore unable to verify any data on FSM status voluntarily supplied by Scottish applicants, nor are Scottish providers able to accurately identify these FSM learners as widening access students. Further exploration of what is possible needs to be situated within the legal and data protection landscape in Scotland (see Sections 4 and 5).