English students from less privileged backgrounds and state, rather than private, schools remain significantly under-represented at high-status universities. There has been little work to date on the role of A-level subject choice, as opposed to attainment, in access to university. Using linked administrative data for three recent cohorts of English entrants to UK universities, I examine the relationship between league table score of university attended and A-level subject choices, using a taxonomy of A-levels categorized according to their published efficacy for Russell Group university admission as ‘facilitating’, ‘useful’ or ‘less suitable’. I further examine the relationship of three ‘less suitable’ A-levels with league table score of university for related degree courses commonly leading to professional business careers (accountancy, business and law). Holding more facilitating A-levels is associated with attending a higher ranked university overall, even controlling for degree subject, and the converse is true for ‘less suitable’ subjects. The heterogeneous relationships of professionally-related A-level subjects with university ranking make decision-making for aspirational 16-year-olds problematic: an apparently sensible subject choice for students wishing to prepare for a professional career may, in fact, put them at a disadvantage.
Dilnot, Catherine
Faculty of Business\Business School\Department of Accounting Finance and Economics
Year of publication: 2018Date of RADAR deposit: 2017-10-18