In late November 2021, the Institute of Fiscal Studies published a report ranking universities in terms of their contributions to social mobility. It is the first time the IFS conducts such a study and there are no plans in place to repeat it yet.

The report follows in the footsteps of other similar endeavours to address how universities are assessed and the short-comings of existing university league tables, which have been found to contribute towards the inequality of access evident among highly selective and other universities.

In this third episode of the Access podcast, I discuss the role of rankings in promoting social mobility; the criteria used to evaluate social mobility, and the wider social and educational context impacting or possibly informing social mobility in the UK with Professor Deborah Johnston, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education) at London Southbank University and member of the Disabled Students’ Commission, an independent and strategic group that advises, informs and influences higher education providers to improve support for disabled students set up by the Office for Students.

My colleague Simon has also conducted a number of vox pops with university students to ascertain their views on higher education's potential to drive social mobility in the UK.

We hope you will find it informative and stimulating. Please leave us a comment, a like or a recommendation by using the tools available at Spotify and iTunes.

This second episode of the Access Podcast focus on the” Skills and post-16 Education Bill”, which was introduced to Parliament in May 2021.

The Bill comes as new figures show that further and technical education provision boost the economy by £26 billion. According to a report by the Social Mobility Commission, twice the number of disadvantaged 16 to 18-year-olds are in further education than in school sixth forms.

In this episode of the Access Podcast, we speak to

We hope you will find the discussions informative and, the different speakers’ perspectives, enriching.

Following research it commissioned in 2019, the Office for Students is considering the benefits of a centralised database to link and report on the outcomes of participants in outreach activities. In this episode, we speak to representatives of two tracking databases (HEAT & EMWPREP) as well as the Office for Students to understand the context and implications of this recommendation.