Socio-economic status and subject choice at 14: do they interact to affect university access?

There is a large socio-economic status gap in Higher Education participation in England. However, most evidence suggests that this is driven by inequality that emerges before the point of application. It has been suggested that one such source of inequality is the subjects and qualifications studied by young people while still at school. The importance of this factor for young people’s chances of progressing to Higher Education in general, and to highly selective HE institutions in particular, has increasingly attracted the attention of policymakers. This has been most notable in the UK Government’s introduction of the English Baccalaureate performance measure for schools at age 16, and the introduction of performance in Russell Group “facilitating subjects” at A-Level for schools at age 18. However, this area is under-studied in the academic literature.