In 2023 my two colleagues and I were given funding by the Evan Cornish Foundation to investigate widening participation in an area east of the college in the Fens of south Lincolnshire. This is a very flat area reclaimed from the sea and the marshland by the Romans and then by adventurers assisted by Dutch settlers in the 17^th century. This area remains sparsely populated but about 37% of all vegetables in the UK are grown in this small area which spreads from Spalding in the south and then east and north up to Boston. Examining OfS Polar 4 data about 20% of young people in this area progress on to HE. This compares with 50% to the west of Spalding.

In 2022/2023 there were 20 young people from this area taking two-year level 3 courses at the college. We were funded for me to meet with all these students and ascertain why they were or were not applying to university. I met with all of them at least once and asked them questions which included:

• Whether they were applying through UCAS or not
• Whether they enjoyed school
• Whether they enjoyed their current course
• Whether their parents or siblings had accessed HE
• What their perception of university is
• What they thought the advantages of going to university are
• What their parents’ occupations are
• How ambitious they thought they were
• Whether they enjoyed living in the fens
• If they were not going to university, what they intended to do and why?

However, I tried to make each session more of a conversation rather than formal questioning and used it to address any fears they had about going to university or applying for a job and generally discussed their decision.

In addition, we were funded to talk to members of the community about their perceptions of whether it was sensible for young people in the area to go to university.  Consequently, I held sessions in libraries in two of the villages in the Fens and in a pub in Holbeach the only town in the fen.  Again, I had standard questions as to whether the participants thought that young people should go to university and what they thought universities were like.  I met with a very wide range of members of the public who were all very interested and keen to give their views. The general perception was that people who live in the fens are different and rarely leave, many young people in the fens were generally lazy and it was a waste of money going to university as there were plenty of good jobs working on the land or in food processing factories. They believed the nearest university was at least 50 miles away and many of them were aware of young people who had gone to university but then dropped out.

Outcome

Considering that about 20% of young people who come from this area progress to HE and the views given by members of the community I was surprised by how many of the 20 students I was working with decided to apply to university. Of the 20, 11 applied in 2022/23 and one more applied in 2023/24.  Thus 60% applied to go to university.  Since then, I have followed up the 11 and asked them whether they had actually gone to university and whether they are enjoying it.  All of them replied in the affirmative.  I also spoke to most of the 8 who had not applied. Most had jobs but were not really enjoying them.  One wanted to take up an IT apprenticeship but could not get to any local town or city because there is little public transport in the fens.

So why had so many of this cohort decided to go to university, the overall college average is just above 50%? When I analysed the data there was actually very little difference between the responses to my questions by those who were intending to go to university and those who did not. The only minor difference was to the question about whether they enjoyed living in the fens. Most said it was OK but those who did not apply to university enjoyed it more. The reason for so many going on to HE might be:

1. Despite the general community culture, those who were applying were using university as a way of getting away. All of the 12 had to travel a long way to get to college each day, often on two buses and they had to get up very early.  Perhaps, they are the few very ambitious students in their locality.  In addition, once they were on the course at college they were with students from different, often more affluent backgrounds who had joined their level 3 course with the intention of going to university and their enthusiasm for HE might have transferred.

2. There was perhaps a halo effect. Those 20 students had been specially selected and given more attention than very peers including more help and advice. I had started the project halfway through the UCAS season and thus had not been able to find out what their original intentions were, but my intervention might have nudged them towards applying.

As a comparator, I have now been able to discover how many of the next cohort of college students from this area have applied to university.  In 2023/24, there have been 14 students living in the Fen area at the college taking level 3 year 2 courses and 6 of them have applied to university and 8 have not. Thus just 43% have applied which is below the college average and would bring them within option 1 only above.  This could suggest that in this particular situation, the reason for such a high number of applications in 2022/23 might have been a combination of 1 and 2.

Plainly this project was with a very small number of students in a particular geographical location, but it may suggest that working more closely with young people when they are making the decision whether to apply to university may encourage some young people from underrepresented areas to apply.  However, most state school and college careers and higher education advisors do not have the time to do this, and funding is very tight.

Blog By: Dr John Baldwin