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Choice and Selection: the Social Process of Transfer to Higher Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

W. A. Reid
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Abstract

The allocation System whereby students pass from school to university is examined, and empirical evidence reviewed to establish the extent to which it approximates to the rationalistic model predicted by official literature on university admissions. Data from surveys in schools and universities tend to show that decisions are not the outcome of logical evaluations of objective information, but of poorly understood social processes in which institutional constraints and popular stereotypes play a major part. Implications are discussed for the secondary school curriculum, for inequalities in the selection process and for developments in admissions policies in an expanding system of higher education.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , October 1974 , pp. 327 - 340
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

1 Universities Central Council on Admissions, Fourth Report, 1965–1966Google Scholar, and Fifth Report, 1970–1. The year 1965–6 was the one in which the universities of Oxford and Cambridge joined the scheme, so that the two sets of figures are roughly comparable.

2 See, for example, the figures quoted in Layard, R., King, J. and Moser, C., The Impact of Robbins, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969Google Scholar, Table 1. Since this article was written there has been a slight reversal of the trend. It is too early to assess the significance of this.

3 For a perceptive discussion of this point in relation to university admissions, see Thresher, B. A., College Admissions and the Public Interest, New York: College Entrance Examination Board, 1966.Google Scholar

4 See, for example, Birley, D. and Dufton, A., An Equal Chance, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1971Google Scholar. A philosophical analysis is to be found in Green, T. F., ‘Equal Educational Opportunity: the Durable Injustice’, in Philosophy of Education 1971, Edwardsville, Illinois: Philosophy of Education Society, 1971.Google Scholar

5 Furneaux, W. D., The Chosen Few, London: O.U.P., 1961Google Scholar. For the UCCA figures, see Statistical Supplement to the Eighth Report, 1969–1970Google Scholar, Table E2. Data published by Donaldson on the intake to a Polytechnic also show high congruence between the social composition of applicant and entrant groups (Donaldson, L., ‘Social Class and the Polytechnics’, Higher Education Review, 4, 1, 1971, 44–68).Google Scholar

6 Perkin, H. J., New Universities in the United Kingdom, O.E.C.D., 1969, p. 103.Google Scholar

7 UCCA, First Report, 1962–1963.Google Scholar

8 UCCA, Sixth Report, 1967–1968Google Scholar. The wording suggests that this is not only an expression of the official view, but also of the official view of the popular view.

9 One thinks, for example, of the more discursive studies such as that of Marris, or, in a more subtle statistical vein, Whitla. (Marris, P., The Experience of Higher Education, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964Google Scholar; Whitla, D. K., ‘Evaluation of Decision-Making: a Study of College Admissions’, in Whitla, D. K. (ed.), Handbook of Measurement and Assessment in Behavioural Sciences, New York: Addison-Wesley, 1968.)Google Scholar

10 See, for example, Watts, A. G. and Dillenbeck, D. D., ‘A Case for More Information of University Entrance Standards’, Careers Research and Advisory Centre Journal, 4, 1, 1969, 7–10.Google Scholar

11 See Cohen, L., ‘Sixth Form Pupils and their Views of Higher Education’, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 2, 1, 05 1970, pp. 67–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Reid, W. A. and Holley, B. J., ‘An Application of Repertory Grid Techniques to the Study of Choice of University’, British Journal of Educational Psychology, 42, 1, 02. 1972, pp. 52–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Reid, W. A., ‘Applicants' images of universities’, Educational Review, 26, 1, 11. 1973, 16–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Unpublished data from the study by Reid, and Holley, , op. cit.Google Scholar Compare Burton R. Clark, ‘…a college's public image determines in large measure the kind of students that enter it. Images are characteristics of a college that shape student self-selection; they help to de-limit a clientele or social base.’ (B: Clark, R., ‘College Image and Student Selection’ in Selection and Educational Differentiation, Berkeley, California: Center for the Study of Higher Education, 1959.)Google Scholar

13 Conclusions based on unpublished data from a survey of 154 schools with sixth forms in the West Midlands and North-West carried out by the University of Birmingham Sixth Form Curriculum and Examinations Project.

14 For a study of the part played by orders of choice in the selection process, see Reid, W. A., The Universities and the Sixth Form Curriculum, London: Macmillan for the Schools Council, 1972, Ch. III.Google Scholar

15 See The Universities and the Sixth Form Curriculum, op. cit. Tables 8.5 and 8.6.

16 Abbot, J., Student Life in a Class Society, London: Pergamon, 1971, p. 179.Google Scholar Among other similar conclusions which might be cited is that of a recent survey of grant holders carried out by the West Riding Education Authority. ‘From these analyses one must conclude that many pupils are steered into choices on the thinnest of evidence.’ (West Riding County Council Education Committee, Schools Bulletin, 03 1972.)Google Scholar These findings are closely paralleled in a number of American Studies which attest the inadequacy of the information received by students, and the relationship between patterns of student self-selection and socio-economic backgrounds. For a concise summary and references, see Feldman, K. A. and Newcomb, T. M., The Impact of College on Students. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1969, Vol. 1, pp. 110–20.Google Scholar

17 Using the term to include those who, although not qualified at the time of application, could, in all probability, become qualified before entry.

18 Compare the Robbins Report, Higher Education, London: HMSO, Cmnd. 2154, 1963, para. 714.Google Scholar

19 For a fuller account of this survey, see The Universities and the Sixth Form Curriculum, op. cit.

20 For a more detailed account, see ibid., op. cit., Ch. III.

21 See, for example, Iliffe, A. H., The Foundation Year in the University of Keele, The Sociological Review, Monograph No. 12, University of Keele, 1968.Google Scholar

22 Mulkay, M., The Social Process of Innovation: A Study in the Sociology of Science, London: Macmillan, 1972, p. 28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23 For a study of the significance of curriculum choices in the secondary school, see Barnard, G. A. and McCreath, M. D., ‘Subject commitments and the demand for higher education’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A. Vol. 133, Part 3, 358–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24 M. D. McCreath, Personal Communication.

25 For an account of the reliability and validity of these, see Himmelweit, H. T., ‘Student Selection’, in Halmos, P. (ed.), Sociological Studies in British University Education, The Sociological Review, Monograph No. 7, University of Keele, 1963.Google Scholar

26 Vickers, G., The Art of Judgement, London: Chapman and Hall, 1965.Google Scholar

27 Figures calculated from UCCA, Seventh Report, 1968/1969Google Scholar. The position for the 1970 entry is obscure because only the median grade of the accepted candidates is reported.

28 Abbot, J., op. cit.Google Scholar Chapters One and Four contain extended discussions of the social class composition of intakes to different types of university.

29 For a fuller development of the mechanism of influence by the universities over the school curriculum, see The Universities and the Sixth Form Curriculum, op. cit. Teachers, lacking precise knowledge of the situation, suspect admission tutors of being even more restrictive than they really are in their acceptance of A-levels.

30 Parsons, Talcott, ‘Equality and Inequality in Modern Society, or Social Stratification Revisited’, in Laumann, E. O. (ed.), Social Stratification: Research and Theories for the 1970's, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1970, pp. 17 and 25.Google Scholar

31 The Statistical Supplements to the Seventh and Eighth Reports provide a detailed breakdown by father's occupation of application and success rates for men and women. However, as this is based on only a 10 per cent sample of applicants no firm conclusions can be drawn.

32 Wankowski, J. A., ‘Promise and Performance: Impressions from One University, Cambridge Review, Vol. 93, No. 2205, 1971, pp. 41–7.Google Scholar

33 See, for example, Hudson, L., Frames of Mind, London: Methuen, 1968.Google Scholar

34 Stern, G. G., People in Context: Measuring Person-Environment Congruence in Education and Industry, New York: Wiley, 1970.Google Scholar