My research area falls within Applied Econometrics and Policy. My PhD research aims to shed light on how individual and background factors affect participation, degree attainment and employability in Higher Education (HE).

In terms of participation, we are principally interested in, as well as individual and background characteristics, the affect of Cultural and Social Capital on who participates in HE. By that we mean the extent and quality of an individual’s social networks and their cultural engagement and participation. This is important and interesting because the focus on the HE literature has primarily been on individual and background characteristics. The literature ignores the effect of Cultural and Social Capital.

To explore participation, we use the three Birth Cohort Studies that is 58, 70 and 01; whilst controlling for individual and background characteristics to specifically look at how cultural and social influences on participation. Preliminary findings suggest that cultural and social influences do have an impact above and beyond that which has been acknowledged in the literature previously. This raises some very interesting policy questions.

Later chapters will investigate educational performance and students’ employability. The findings should allow Policy Makers and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to better understand the effect of disadvantage and how this affects outcomes and employability of recent HE participants. This will help both policy makers and HEIs to better target resources to Widening Participation and improve social mobility. These chapters, it is hoped, will make use of a unique linked dataset combining UEA Anonymous Student Records/Admissions Data with HESA Destinations data of two very recent cohorts of UEA undergraduates.