Bell, D and Burns, L orcid.org/0000-0003-0164-3668 (2022) Creating a Composite Index to Target Recruitment of UK Students from Areas of Low Participation in Higher Education. Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, 15 (3). pp. 847-872. ISSN 1874-463X
Abstract
This research presents a framework through which a new Higher Education Access and Deprivation (HEAD) composite index was created to assist UK universities in efficiently recruiting and supporting students from areas with traditionally low engagement rates in higher education. The index was designed to be easily adaptable by university staff to suit their own work priorities and/or an institution’s strategic requirements by utilising open socio-demographic data and construction techniques that require minimal technical statistical skills. Although Cornwall was used as the study area in this research, this index has been designed such that it can be readily applied elsewhere. Two differently weighted models were created using the framework – one with equal weights and the other based on the frequency the constituent indicators appeared in the reviewed academic literature. Both models were mapped across Cornwall, identifying areas of deprivation at a finer resolution than under the current widely used Participation of Local Areas (POLAR) methodology. The weighted model performed marginally better than both the equal weighted model and the current POLAR methodology when validated against external data, and additionally it worked well in both rural and urban environments leading to it being selected as the new HEAD index. The HEAD index maps smaller scale areas of deprivation than previously available, and by enabling users to investigate the underlying socio-demographic characteristics of an area, it also allows universities to create interventions, support, and policies that best targets the students they aim to recruit and teach.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2021. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) |
Keywords: | Widening participation; Higher education; Composite indicators; Deprivation indices; Spatial analysis; Deprivation indices |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Centre for Spatial Analysis & Policy (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 18 Aug 2021 13:00 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 22:44 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s12061-021-09423-1 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:177204 |