Do disadvantaged students really have lower higher education aspirations?

Who are disadvantaged students?

The term disadvantaged can have different meanings, but in the context of schools it is often used to refer to those who are supported by the pupil premium. The Department for Education defines disadvantaged pupils as either: 

• Those eligible for free school meals, either presently or at any point in the last six years 
• Those who are looked after in local authority care, or those who have previously been looked after but are now adopted or subject to a special guardianship order, child arrangements order or a residence order 
• Those children who have parents in the armed forces 

This is a very specific definition, though in a broader sense the term disadvantage encompasses those from low-socioeconomic/income backgrounds. The definition from the Department for Education does not take into account other structural forms of disadvantage which may affect educational attainment. Therefore it is important to understand that those who are considered disadvantaged are not a homogenous group and are affected by factors such as gender, race, or geographical location. 

What are higher education aspirations?

Aspirations can be shaped by both structural factors and also external influences. Roughly speaking, they refer to what an individual hopes will happen in the future. One possible indicator of aspiration might be a young person’s reported desire to continue with education post-16. However, we should be careful not to buy in to the myth that disadvantaged students have lower aspirations simply because they are less likely to go on to HE. Educational aspirations, particularly those related to HE, can often be linked to parental support, motivation and expectation for their children to progress into HE, in a similar way that attainment can also be linked. One report conducted to better understand the link between young people’s educational aspirations and how they’re formed concluded that there was a connection between the aspirations of students and the desires of those who they talked about their future with, for example parents or siblings. However, the underlying assumption of this is that increased participation in HE is the desired outcome of aspiration as well as its measure. In this way aspiration becomes fixed to widening participation policy with a narrow focus on outreach work, application processes, and university access. It fails to see secondary education as a way of building the confidence and expectations of students to make an informed decision about whether higher education aligns with their future career aspirations. 

Often the issue with the discussion of aspiration is that it assumes that structural inequality can easily be overcome. Additionally there is a suggestion that it is low aspiration amongst poorer students that needs to be tackled rather than addressing the myth of meritocracy. Arguably the emphasis of this discourse is rooted in neoliberal ideas of self-reliance and independence from the state. Examples of this can be seen in many government policy documents which can suggest that low aspirations are higher amongst students from families where there is not a tradition of HE progression. This puts more pressure on those who are in low economic positions to ‘raise their game’, break the norm and increase educational attainment in order to improve their life opportunities.  

What can be done to combat this?

There needs to be an overhaul in the way we look at aspiration and aspiration to HE. We should not see disadvantaged students as lacking in aspiration but instead as fighting to overcome obstacles to destinations such as HE. Therefore we should be building confidence in students so that they have beliefs in their own abilities. And we can do this in the following ways: 

• Increase the confidence of young people - allowing them to focus on expectation rather than aspiration, concentrating on what is achievable and desirable rather than what potentially is unattainable.  
• Separate the discourse/language between aspiration and higher education – with a focus on careers and the job market with the hope of diversifying aspirations