Factors Influencing Choice of Higher Education; First-Year Sixth Survey

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors which influence young people in their demand for higher education in its various forms - at universities, colleges of education (teacher training colleges), polytechnics and colleges of further education. Six of these eight surveys are the main study which was carried out on (a) the schools and the fifth-formers and the sixth-formers in them, and (b) the colleges of further education and their home students studying `A' level subjects full-time. The material from the young people includes that given by them at two stages, first from the main survey which took place before they sat GCE examinations and before the results of higher education applications were available and secondly, from the follow-up survey after the results of the GCE examinations were known and the young people already embarked on courses the following session. For the fifth and sixth-form surveys (67001, 67002 and 68005) there is also incorporated the form teachers' broad assessment of ability (three categories) examination prospects and higher education and career aspirations. For the schools the main survey was carried out in the Spring term 1967 with the follow-up in the autumn. The equivalent dates in the colleges of further education were May 1967 and January 1968. (The remaining two surveys are subsidiary to the project; 66023 is the pilot stage of the main survey part of 68004, i.e. home students studying `A' levels full-time in the further education colleges, whilst 67005 (fifth-formers in the fast stream in schools) comprises a sub-set of material from the main fifth-form survey for an enlarged sample of those pupils in schools with fast streams). The six surveys in the main study are interlinked with information from the school or college complementing that from the pupil or student. In addition there is standardisation - as far as was practicable - between sections of the questionnaire used for the fifth-formers, lower and upper sixth-formers and students in further education (e.g. general background). The contents of the questionnaire for the upper sixth-formers and further education students corresponded particularly closely. Copies of all reports on the surveys are in the Library of the Royal Statistical Society. Mainly they deal with specific aspects of the data e.g. 'Subject commitments and the demand for higher education', G. A. Barnard and M. D. McCreath (1970) Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A (General) 133 (3) 358 - 408, 'Report of the surveys of full-time 'A' level students (home) in colleges of further education', by M. D. McCreath (1970). All the material which is available is listed in the most recent report written in 1972, Factors influencing choice of higher education: surveys carried out by Margaret D McCreath under the direction of Professor G A Barnard, Department of Mathematics, University of Essex. This 1972 report includes data from both the school and further education surveys. The extensive tables are based on the following variables: social class, expectations about leaving school and reasons for doing so, source of the most useful discussion on what to do after school, family experience of higher education, `O' and `A' level attempts and passes, knowledge of higher education entry requirements and with whom these were discussed, as well as intended and actual destinations in higher education. The technical note on the sample design by Judith Doherty was published in 1970 as Appendix 1 of Volume 1 of the Schools Council Sixth-Form Survey, Sixth-Form Pupils and Teachers. Details of the response rates are given in the 1972 report mentioned above.Main Topics:Variables Note: The same schedule was used for lower and upper sixth-forms so that certain parts of the full description given below are more applicable to second and third year sixth-formers - see SN:68005. Information given includes: whether respondent intends to 'fill in' a year after school; whether he is applying to enter into full-time higher education; if so, whether he has found out about entrance requirements and with whom he has discussed this. If respondent is aiming for a degree, he is asked for university preference and if he has made preliminary application to Oxford and/or Cambridge. Those who have already applied to a university or medical school are asked about the UCCA procedure (particularly whether preferences stated on UCCA form were respondent's real order of preference, and whether he applied to read the same subject at each university). Respondents are also asked whether they are prepared to go to any university with a vacancy. Those who have already applied to a college of education are asked similar questions on application procedure. Those respondents applying to full-time education courses other than the two mentioned above are asked for a description of the college and the qualification to which the course leads, plus what the main field of study will be (13 categories). Those respondents going straight into a job, including jobs which involve training at the same time (e.g. nursing, law etc.) are asked for a job description, whether it involves training, whether respondent knows any alternative way of studying full-time for qualification required, and if so, the reason for opting to study and work at the same time. As in SN:67001, there is a supplementary questionnaire for teachers to answer, and a follow-up survey for all sample pupils who intended to leave school that summer asking for examination results and what they are now doing. General and educational as for SN:67001, with the addition of the following data: number of 'O' level subjects passed; number attempted before entering the sixth-form; whether respondent intends taking any more before leaving school; the type of sixth form course being followed; how respondent chose 'A' level subjects (including from whom he received guidance); 'A' level subjects already taken or to be taken; whether respondent transferred from another school for sixth-form work (if yes, from what type of school)