JR35002 Studentship - Fair access, widening participation, and outcomes in higher education

The attributes of advanced level students range from their subject preferences, their performance, their socio-economic backgrounds as well as their teachers have an effect on the judgements made by their teachers about their grades prior to official publication of their results and the university programs they prefer and they are offered. This sounds so obvious but there has been no direct interrogation as to empirically and statistically test these associations between advanced level student attributes and University program preferences. The purpose of this research is to empirically and statistically test these associations between advanced level student attributes and University program preferences.

The problem that triggered the research undertaking is the fact that there has been no research to establish the association between the attributes of advanced level student's subject selection and the university programs they are offered. The association seems to be obvious but there has been no direct interrogation as to empirically and statistically test these associations between these advanced level student attributes and students' University program preferences. This is despite the availability of secondary data that shows the socio-economic and academic background of students. The research shall therefore undertake a research that show the standpoint position in these attributes as a way of enabling students careers policy and decision making.