Participation of Local Areas

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Participation of Local Areas (POLAR) is a British government geodemographic data set, whereby British areas are subdivided by their respective inclusion (participation rate) in higher education (England, Scotland and Wales), according to five socio-economic classification groups.

History

The first data set of Participation of Local Areas was produced in 2005. A report was produced by HEFCE in January 2005, with another report from HEFCE in January 2010.

POLAR2

The POLAR2 dataset was produced in 2006 and based on the 1997–99 cohort group.

POLAR3

The POLAR3 dataset was produced in 2011 and based on the 2000–04 cohort group.

POLAR4

The POLAR4 dataset was produced in October 2017, and based on the 2010–14 cohort group.

Participation

In the late 2000s, less than 1 in 5 (around 19%) from the lowest socio-economic classification group (areas of concentrated disadvantage) attended higher education, compared to more than 1 in 2 (around 57%) from the most-advantaged classification group. The participation rate for the least-advantaged classification group had risen from about 12% in the mid-1990s to around 19% in the late 2000s; likewise the most-advantaged classification group was around 15% more likely to attend higher education in the late 2000s. Participation for the least-advantaged had been helped, to some extent, by the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA); this is still provided by Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland although it has been reduced, but it was dropped in England completely in 2011, but replaced by a £180m bursary scheme which is paid to the educational institution and not the individual; government ministers in England had said that the EMA was bribing young people to sign up for courses they may not complete and did not solve the country's chronic skills shortage.

For each of the five classification groups, women are more likely than men to attend higher education; in the mid-1990s around 30% of both genders attended higher education, but by the mid-2000s it was 30% (unchanged) for men and 35% for women; it had reached around 40% for women in the late 2000s.

The total numbers of 18-year-olds came to a minimum (around 530,000) in the mid-1990s, and then rose by around 20% (630,000) in the late-2000s; but the increase has not been constant and has varied from year to year; 1998 was lower than 1997, 1999 was lower than 1998 and 2004 was lower than 2003.

The introduction of higher education fees does not appear to have hindered participation at higher education.

Participation in disadvantaged areas

From the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s (POLAR2 data), the participation rate for women in disadvantaged areas went from around 12% to 17%, but the participation rate for men stayed at 12%; by the late 2000s (POLAR3 data) the rate for men was 16% but 22% for women; women were around 35% more likely to attend higher education in the late-2000s (according to the POLAR2 classification).

Structure

The site is run by Office for Students. It is produced with the ONS Postcode Directory. Each area is allocated a quintile number, representing the area's inclusion in higher education.

Data

Data comes from UCAS admissions data, Acorn postcode socio-economic data and the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), the former Learning and Skills Council (LSC), the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), the Welsh Government, the ONS National Statistics Postcode Directory (and the ONS Population Estimates for UK, England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland), the ONS Census Area Statistics Area wards (around 8,000 for England) and the 2011 United Kingdom census. To calculate proportions attending university, the number of people (cohort) aged 15 in each area is estimated from child benefit records. Socio-economic classification mostly comes from the type of parental education in each cohort.

The data for London is skewed due to the higher incomes in London; only 1.3% households in London are in the least-advantaged quintile.

Function

The UK government wants to widen participation across lower demographic groups to higher education at 18. POLAR datasets show the proportion of British young people from different backgrounds who enter higher education at age 18 or 19. Different colours on the map data show the five classification groups of different participations. The study method is by tracking individuals by age, and over the years, so it is a type of simplistic (but large scale) cohort study; many other studies are conversely snapshots of data in an individual year.

Higher education institutions access the data set, and others such as the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), to see how represented geographic areas are at its respective university. The data set allows comparison of a geographic area by respective university, or the distribution of the inclusion of a university by respective area.

See also

• National Education Opportunities Network (NEON), produced by London Higher
• National Statistics Socio-economic Classification
• Socioeconomic mobility in the United Kingdom
• Tracking Underrepresentation By Area (TUNDRA), a similar government geodemographic dataset, classified by middle-layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs) and looks at GCSE data, and only covers England

External links

• Office for Students
• UK Government

Many more references and data

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