The geodemographics of educational progression and their implications for widening participation in higher education.

This paper addresses our ability to analyse progression rates into UK Higher Education (HE) using a range of data available at the individual and neighborhood levels. The then Department for Children, Schools and Families has recently released data which make it possible to profile national patterns of student educational progression from post-compulsory schooling through to university. However, the linked records lack detailed socioeconomic information, and thus a geodemographic classification is used to analyse the flows of students from different sociospatial backgrounds into the HE system. Rates of progression are shown to vary greatly between these groups, and a disaggregation of HE participants by courses of study demonstrates that the abilities of institutions to attract students from different backgrounds will be constrained by the mix of their course offerings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]