Capturing a person’s social background is not straight forward. Indicators commonly used in widening participation initiatives include students’ parental education, measures of rates of participation in higher education in their local area (TUNDRA and POLAR4) and school type (state or fee-paying). There are different data quality considerations for each indicator. Parental education relies on student recall and contains a high proportion of refusals. TUNDRA and POLAR4 have a high level of coverage but TUNDRA is only available for students whose home address on application was in England, and POLAR4 is not available for students whose home address on application was in Northern Ireland.
Given the limitations associated with each, you may wish to ask one, two or all three of these questions.
Recommended questions:
The following question is about your parent/s' level of education. This includes natural parents, adoptive parents, step-parents or guardians who have raised you.
Do any of your parents (as defined above) have any higher education qualifications such as a degree, diploma or certification of higher education?
- No
- Yes
- I don’t know
- Prefer not to say.
When you applied for your undergraduate studies, what postcode did you apply from?
- My postcode was:
- I can’t remember
- I was not living in the UK when I applied for my undergraduate degree
- Prefer not to say.
What type of school(s) did you mainly attend between the ages of 11 and 18 years old?
- State-run or state-funded school in the UK, which was non-selective
- State-run or state-funded school in the UK, which was selective on academic, faith or other grounds
- Independent or fee-paying school in the UK
- Independent or fee-paying school in the UK (assisted or funded place)
- School outside of the UK
- Other (such as home schooled)
- I don't know
- Prefer not to say.
Institutions might wish to note that state-run or state-funded schools include academy schools, community schools, foundation schools, free schools and faith schools.
Advance HE’s recommended questions are most suitable for the collection of data about undergraduate students.
UK censuses do not ask a direct question about social background but might discern this information from questions asked about an individual’s postcode, level of qualification, employment status and job title.
The UK Government Cabinet Office has published guidance on the measurement of workforce socio-economic background, which describes approaches to measurement:
- Type of school attended between the ages of 11 and 16
- Highest level of qualifications achieved by either of your parent(s) or guardian(s)
- Parental occupation (when the respondent was aged 14)
- Eligibility for free school meals (for respondents who finished school after 1980)
- Self-assessment of socio-economic background (comparison to others).