Embarking on higher education (II): Futuretrack 2006 - the bigger picture
- Summary
- Introduction
- Success and failure in obtaining HE places
- Why did students decide to apply to enter HE?
- Clarity of ideas about career prior to course
- Access to careers guidance and information
- Self-rating on skills
- Reasons for not moving on to HE
- Next stage
- Further information
- Futuretrack: part-time students
- Footnote
- References
Summary
In the Spring 2007 issue of Graduate Market Trends published earlier this year, Professor Kate Purcell from the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick presented the key findings of the first stage of Futuretrack 2005 - the pilot study of Futuretrack 2006, HECSU’s longitudinal study of 2006 UCAS applicants as they enter and progress through higher education. In this article, Professor Purcell discusses some of the preliminary findings of the first stage of Futuretrack 2006, which reinforce the 2005 findings and provide a more comprehensive picture of higher education applicants and their experiences.
Introduction
In 2005, the Higher Education Careers Service Unit (HECSU) launched an ambitious programme of research, designed to explore the process of entry into and through higher education in more detail than had hitherto been attempted. This programme, Career-making, has at its core a major longitudinal study, Futuretrack, of all applicants to full-time UK higher education courses who applied through the Universities and Colleges Admissions service (UCAS) in 2006. This article presents some of the key preliminary findings from the first stage of this study, which was conducted in summer 2006, at the point where the majority of respondents aspired to embark on a full-time higher education undergraduate or sub-degree course in autumn 2006 [1].
In advance of this 2006 major study, a smaller pilot study was launched in 2005 (Futuretrack 2005) with the primary aim to inform the 2006 study on the survey methodology. The results of the first stage of Futuretrack 2005 were reported in the article Embarking on higher education in the Spring 07 issue of Graduate Market Trends [2].
Success and failure in obtaining HE places
All 2006 UCAS applicants, a total of 506,304 individuals, were invited to participate in Futuretrack 2006 and fill in an online questionnaire. 129,020 responses were received, of whom 23,000 had not proceeded directly to full-time higher education study (see footnote). Those applying as secondary school students, under 21, white rather than ethnic minority and UK rather than EU or other overseas students had a greater propensity to have received offers and accepted places under the main UCAS scheme, were less likely to enter through ‘clearing’, and less likely to end up without a place.
Why did students decide to apply to enter HE?
Applicants whose parents had participated in higher education (second generation applicants) were twice as likely as first generation applicants to have given as a reason ‘it is the normal thing for somebody like me’ (52% compared with 27%). Furthermore, two-fifths (40%) of the second generation applicants stated that their parents had encouraged them to apply, compared with just 25% of first generation applicants. Second generation applicants were also more likely to have been encouraged by their teachers to apply.
Conversely, first generation applicants were more likely to give career or employment-orientated reasons for their higher education application. Thirty seven per cent of applicants for whom neither parent had experience of higher education gave ‘it is part of my longer term career plans’ as their main reason, and 22% ‘to enable me to get a good job’. This compares with 31% and 18% respectively of applicants whose parents had both attended higher education.
Teachers’ encouragement was most likely to have been mentioned by those opting for physical sciences, linguistics and classics, languages, and historical and philosophical subjects. Conversely, careers advice was most likely to have been regarded as influential by those opting for engineering and technology, mass communication and documentation, and most likely to have influenced those in the highest socio-economic category. To a considerable extent, although parental experience of higher education and socio-economic background are strongly related, parental experience of higher education appears to have a stronger impact on responses throughout the questionnaire than social background itself.
Clarity of ideas about career prior to course
Accepted applicants were asked where they would put themselves, on a scale of 1-7 where 1 means ‘I have a clear idea about the occupation I hope to enter and the qualifications required for it’ and 7 means ‘I have no idea what I will do when I complete my course’. Figure 1 shows the distribution of responses and illustrates a stronger bias towards the ‘instrumental’ rather than the ‘drifter’ end of the scale. Age is found to be a significant factor: those aged 25 and older were the most likely to have given a rating of ‘1’.
Access to careers guidance and information
Clarity of career plans might be expected to reflect the extent to which applicants had access to careers information and guidance prior to making their choices of course. In deciding to apply for a higher education course around a quarter, 26%, agreed or strongly agreed that they needed more help and advice in choosing which course to study, and there appears to be a shortfall in the careers advice applicants received from schools. Whilst 61% agreed that teachers and lecturers were very helpful to them, just 35% felt the same way about the careers guidance provided. For those with graduate parents attending schools and colleges where the majority of students go on to higher education, this may be less of a problem, but for those without these advantages, lack of access to career guidance prior to higher education application leaves them vulnerable to making poorer choices.
Self-rating on skills
Applicants were also asked to rate themselves on self-confidence and the core skills of written and spoken communication, numeracy and computing skills. The results are shown in Figure 2. Respondents were most confident about their written communication, followed by spoken communication, and least confident about their numeracy.
As the programme of research proceeds, these will be related to the respondents’ career decision-making and options perceived and followed. The same questions will also be asked again at a later stage of the longitudinal study to assess the subjectively-perceived impact of higher education participation in different programmes of study.
Reasons for not moving on to HE
For those UCAS applicants who had not progressed into higher education, the most commonly cited reason was the decision to take a gap year. However, 22% reported low grades as the reason, and 18.9% replied that either the costs or the prospect of incurring debts (or both) had deterred them from entering higher education. Applicants from a routine and manual occupations background were the most likely to cite reasons of cost as putting them off higher education.
Next stage
This article presented some of the key preliminary findings of the first stage of Futuretrack 2006. More detailed analysis of the survey, as well as follow-up interviews with samples of respondents, are currently being conducted. A full report of the first stage of Futuretrack 2006 will be published towards the end of 2007.
Meanwhile, the second stage of Futuretrack 2006 - a follow-up survey of the 2006 UCAS applicants one year on, is now underway (see the article Involving staff and students in research). Since Futuretrack is a longitudinal study tracking students’ decision-making as they make the decisions, it will enable us to see how students are confronted by, and able to manage, the obstacles and opportunities that they encounter. It will also enable us to focus on particular issues or categories of students: students identified as experiencing particular difficulties, or particularly constrained by debt, the way that reasons for course choices affect paths taken, the impacts of subject choices, the longer term impact of taking a gap year or deferring study for other reasons, variables related to educational and career satisfaction and to access and progression to postgraduate study and further professional training. Perhaps most importantly, the findings will help to identify where further careers and career-planning information and guidance are required and where they are most effective.
Further information
For further information about Futuretrack, including preliminary findings from the first stage of this study, go to HECSU. See also our dedicated website Futuretrack for the study .
Futuretrack: part-time students
Futuretrack: part-time students is a new longitudinal study of part-time students in HE. Like Futuretrack, it is part of HECSU’s Career Making research programme. This new study aims to investigate part-time students’ motivations, expectations and aspirations in studying, and how these influence their decision-making about work and careers. For more information, please contact Pearl Mok at futuretrackparttime@prospects.ac.uk.
Footnote
There are two respects in which the survey respondents varied significantly from the UCAS applicant population: respondents were more likely to be females and more likely to have high entry qualifications. The data have been weighted to take account of these biases in the analysis.
References
1. Applying for Higher Education - Career Choices and Plans: Work in progress, Kate Purcell, Peter Elias, Duncan Adam, Heike Behle, Ritva Ellison and Nick Wilton, June 2007. HECSU
2. The Futuretrack 2005 Stage 1 report, Embarking on Higher Education, is available from HECSU.
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