HEPI report highlights gaps in outcomes among Free School Meal students in higher education

Thursday, 1 June 2023 00:01

The Higher Education Policy Institute (www.hepi.ac.uk) has published a new paper on educational outcomes across different universities for students formerly eligible for Free School Meals. The disconnect between quality and inequality: An analysis of the gaps in educational outcomes achieved by free school meal-eligible students in English higher education (Policy Note 46) by Professor Antony C. Moss, Pro Vice Chancellor for Education and Student Experience at London...Request free trial

The Higher Education Policy Institute (www.hepi.ac.uk) has published a new paper on educational outcomes across different universities for students formerly eligible for Free School Meals.

The disconnect between quality and inequality: An analysis of the gaps in educational outcomes achieved by free school meal-eligible students in English higher education (Policy Note 46) by Professor Antony C. Moss, Pro Vice Chancellor for Education and Student Experience at London South Bank University, shows disadvantaged pupils experience persistent educational inequality across all levels of education.

The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) awards universities a Gold, Silver or Bronze award on the basis of the excellence they deliver in teaching, learning and student outcomes – and ensuring these are consistent across different types of students including disadvantaged ones.

The Policy Note finds, however, that there is no statistically significant difference between Bronze, Silver and Gold providers in the Continuation, Completion, Attainment or Progression gaps of their students.

The paper, which has been kindly sponsored by London South Bank University, shows:

Institutions with a TEF Gold Award recruit significantly fewer Free School Meal pupils as a proportion of their overall intake compared to Bronze and Silver universities.
Universities that recruit a smaller number of Free School Meal students have a higher entry tariff and are disproportionally more likely to receive a Gold award under the TEF. Not a single provider with more than 30% of their students having been eligible for Free School Meals was awarded a Gold in the TEF.
There are no significant correlations between the proportion of Free School meal pupils and the size of any outcome gaps. Gold providers, despite having far fewer Free School Meal students, do not achieve comparatively better Continuation, Completion, Attainment or Progression for these students compared to Silver and Bronze providers.

Professor Antony C. Moss, author of the report, said:

‘This report shows that the heavy lifting on social mobility is not distributed equally across the higher education sector. Bronze and Silver TEF-ranked, lower-tariff institutions are doing far more to expand access to higher education, by recruiting the majority of disadvantaged students.

‘At the same time, they are achieving comparable outcomes compared to high-tariff providers, even though these universities recruit very few disadvantaged students and have greater resources per head to support them.

‘Currently, funding for supporting disadvantaged students is distributed equally across universities with Access and Participation Plans in place. The analysis in this report suggests the Office for Students should rethink how it provides this financial support so that those universities educating the majority of England’s disadvantaged students do not continue to lose out.’

Nick Hillman, Director of HEPI, said:

‘There is a wealth of evidence showing eligibility for Free School Meals is the best common indicator of disadvantage among pupils. This important new research suggests those who received Free School Meals continue to lose out even after entering higher education.

‘The Teaching Excellence Framework was designed to measure the quality of universities and the outcomes of students, but the evidence shows it does not sufficiently reflect one basic educational truth: it is harder to educate thousands of disadvantaged students than it is to educate a handful of them.

‘The Teaching Excellence Framework panels are currently working hard to give out the first full set of Awards to universities since 2017. It is vital they learn from the past by doing more to recognise the circumstances of individual institutions.’

Providers with the lowest proportion of FSM entrants in 2020/21

Provider	2017 TEF Award	Tariff Quintile	Total Intake	FSM Students	% FSM
The University of Bath	Gold	1	1,990	110	5.4
University of Exeter	Gold	1	3,660	250	6.9
University of Bristol	Silver	1	3,670	260	7.1
University of Oxford	Gold	1	1,720	130	7.6
Loughborough University	Gold	1	3,020	230	7.7
Leeds Conservatoire	Silver	3	330	30	7.9
University of York	Gold	1	3,340	280	8.2
The University of Sheffield	Silver	1	3,590	300	8.4
University of Southampton	Silver	1	2,980	270	9.0
Harper Adams University	Gold	1	410	40	9.1
University of Durham	Gold	2	2,560	230	9.1
University of Newcastle upon Tyne	Gold	3	3,620	330	9.1
Hartpury University	Gold	2	490	50	9.3
University of Cambridge	Gold	1	1,790	170	9.5
The University of Nottingham	Gold	1	5,450	540	9.9
The University of Lancaster	Gold	1	2,550	260	10.1
The University of Leeds	Gold	1	4,990	510	10.2
The University of Liverpool	Silver	1	4,040	430	10.7
Falmouth University	Gold	1	1,520	170	11.0
Arts University Bournemouth	Gold	3	870	100	11.3

Data based on full time undergraduate entrants, from providers who recruited >200 students in 2020/21

Providers with the highest proportion of FSM entrants in 2020 – 2021.

Provider	2017 TEF Award	Tariff Quintile	Total Intake	FSM Students	% FSM
Middlesex University	Silver	5	1,620	670	41.2
School of Oriental and African Studies	Silver	2	720	280	38.6
London South Bank University	Silver	5	1,820	690	37.8
Roehampton University	Silver	5	930	350	37.8
London Metropolitan University	Bronze	5	760	290	37.7
The University of Westminster	Bronze	4	2,960	1080	36.5
University of Wolverhampton	Silver	5	1,930	680	35.5
City, University of London	Silver	2	2,340	790	33.6
Brunel University London	Silver	3	2,130	710	33.5
Birmingham City University	Silver	3	4,930	1630	33.1
The University of Law Limited	Silver	#N/A	880	290	33.1
Newman University	Silver	5	400	130	32.9
University of Bedfordshire	Silver	5	690	220	32.6
University of Greenwich	Silver	4	3,020	970	32.3
Goldsmiths' College	Bronze	3	840	270	32.1
The University of West London	Silver	4	1,210	380	31.3
Birkbeck College	Silver	5	270	80	31.3
Newcastle College Group	Silver	#N/A	500	160	31.0
University College Birmingham	Silver	5	790	240	30.8
Kingston University	Bronze	4	2,400	720	30.1

Data based on full time undergraduate entrants, from providers who recruited >200 students in 2020/21

For further information, please contact Tony Moss at mossac@lsbu.ac.uk / 07958 739099 or Nick Hillman at n.hillman@hepi.ac.uk / 07730 718247.

Notes for Editors

Professor Antony C. Moss, author of the report, is Pro Vice-Chancellor Education and Student Experience at London South Bank University, where he is also a Professor of Addictive Behaviour Science in the Centre for Addictive Behaviours Research. He is Chair of the London Uni Connect Partnership funded by the Office for Students, which works to improve access and opportunity to higher education for disadvantaged groups across London. In addition, he is Deputy Director for PHIRST South Bank, an NIHR-funded national research centre which supports Local Authorities across the UK to conduct evaluations of public health interventions.
London South Bank University, (LSBU), sponsor of the report, is a civic university of technology, which provides accessible, career-orientated professional and technical education. LSBU has the 3^rd highest proportion of students who were previously eligible for free school meals across English universities (37.8%, twice the average for English universities [18.4%]). Despite this, LSBU is ranked 11^th among UK universities for graduate starting salaries at one year after graduation (Longitudinal Education Outcomes Data 2019-20).