Abstract
Despite significant government policy attention paid to the importance of where young people grow up in shaping their access to HE, the role of place for elite university progression specifically has been little explored. This thesis makes an important contribution to addressing this knowledge gap, through its detailed exploration of the geographies of access for English-domiciled entrants to elite universities in the UK. An innovative explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was employed. The first, quantitative phase of research, used multilevel modelling to examine elite university progression by local area across England on a granular scale. This was followed by detailed mapping to identify areas of higher and lower than expected progression, with a subsequent, qualitative phase of work involving in-depth case study research in two purposely selected localities, one (in East London) with higher-than-expected progression and the other (in Nottingham) lower-than-expected progression.While place in itself was not a highly significant factor for entry to elite universities overall, there was a distinct urban-rural patterning to progression identified. Indeed, when raw progression rates by area alone were considered, rural areas typically had higher progression rates to elite universities. However, when the full range of individual characteristics was accounted for, including attainment, socio-economic status, ethnicity and accessibility to elite universities, the converse was true— localities within and surrounding major urban centres were those with the highest progression rates. Importantly, this urban ‘escalator’ effect suggested that urban disadvantaged youth may be advantaged within elite university progression over similar peers in more peripheral places.
Though the East London and Nottingham case studies were given equal value within data collection and analysis, the most important findings emerged primarily within the East London case study and discussion of this case study thus takes precedence in the thesis. Three key themes were identified as playing potentially important roles in explaining higher/lower-than-expected progression. The first related to findings from the East London locality of a shared culture of elite university valorisation across the area’s multiple high-performing schools, enabled through strong framing of university choices to privilege progression to Russell Group institutions. The second was of disadvantaged students’ uneven access to elite university outreach opportunities. The final key finding was of the importance of local economic contexts in shaping the kind of university and career trajectories that students from disadvantaged backgrounds are exposed to. Recommendations are put forward to policymakers and practitioners seeking to address the spatial inequalities in access to elite institutions.
| Date of Award | 29 Mar 2023 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Michael Donnelly (Supervisor), Andres Sandoval Hernandez (Supervisor) & Paul Gregg (Supervisor) |