This report from the Higher Education Policy Institute think-tank has questioned whether asking students if they are the first in their family to go to university remains a useful metric.
For years, higher education institutions have used ‘first-in-family’ status as a yardstick for their success in opening their doors to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The paper argues too much weight has been put on first-in-family status as a measure of disadvantage for admissions to higher education because the indicator has many different definitions, is self-declared and unverifiable. There is also a lack of transparency over how it is applied.
In 2017-18, more than two thirds of students (68 per cent) participating in higher education were classed as the first in their family to go to university, with 32 per cent having parents with degrees.
The report argues too much weight has been placed on the status, which is self-declared and unverifiable. There are also different definitions for the status. While it is usually interpreted as referring to whether a student is in the first-generation of their family to go to university, it can also include siblings and step-families.
According to HEPI, the status applies disproportionately to people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds who are actually more likely to go to university than white young people. However, the research did find that first-in-family students are less likely to get into highly selective universities and more likely to drop out from their course.