Monday Afternoon Seminar: Academic undermatch among high-attaining disadvantaged studentsISER External Seminars

Are disadvantaged students more likely to undermatch in higher education? We consider this question using detailed administrative records from schools, universities, and tax authorities in England. We develop two new continuous measures of student-course match quality. First, we compare each student’s position on the age 18 test score distribution with that of their university-course peers, examining whether high-attaining students match to courses with high-attaining peers. Second, we compare each student’s relative test score with the distribution of earnings of past students on their chosen course, examining whether high ability students match to courses with high returns. We find that high-attaining disadvantaged students are more likely to be undermatched than their more advantaged counterparts, particularly based on expected returns. There are indications that undermatched students tend to live in environments which are less conducive to academic success.

Presented by:

Stuart Campbell, UCL Institute of Education

Date & time:

19 Mar 2018 16:00 pm - 19 Mar 2018 17:30 pm

Venue:

2N2.4.16


External seminars home

News

Latest findings, new research

Publications search

Search all research by subject and author

Podcasts

Researchers discuss their findings and what they mean for society

Projects

Background and context, methods and data, aims and outputs

Events

Conferences, seminars and workshops

Survey methodology

Specialist research, practice and study

Taking the long view

ISER's annual report

Themes

Key research themes and areas of interest