The relationship between A-level subject choice and league table score of university attended: the 'facilitating', the 'less suitable', and the counter-intuitive

• Published in: Oxford review of education Vol. 44; no. 1; pp. 118 - 137
• Main Author: Dilnot, Catherine
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Routledge 02.01.2018; Taylor & Francis, Ltd; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: A-level subject choice; Access; Accounting; Admissions policies; Appropriateness; Attainment; Careers; Classification; Cohort Analysis; College Applicants; College Entrance Examinations; College students; Colleges & universities; Correlation; Course Selection (Students); Decision making; Educational Attainment; Efficacy; Exit Examinations; facilitating subjects; fair access; Foreign Countries; Gender Differences; High School Graduates; Institutional Characteristics; Law; Observation; Performance Factors; Private schools; Ratings & rankings; School Statistics; Scores; Socioeconomic Background; Student Records; Taxation; Taxonomy; Universities; university league tables; United Kingdom (England)
• ISSN: 0305-4985; 1465-3915
• DOI: 10.1080/03054985.2018.1409976

English students from less privileged backgrounds and state, rather than private, schools remain significantly under-represented at high-status universities. There has been little work to date on the role of A-level subject choice, as opposed to attainment, in access to university. Using linked administrative data for three recent cohorts of English entrants to UK universities, I examine the relationship between league table score of university attended and A-level subject choices, using a taxonomy of A-levels categorised according to their published efficacy for Russell Group university admission as 'facilitating', 'useful', or 'less suitable'. I further examine the relationship of three 'less suitable' A-levels with league table score of university for related degree courses commonly leading to professional business careers (accountancy, business, and law). Holding more facilitating A-levels is associated with attending a higher ranked university overall, even controlling for degree subject, and the converse is true for 'less suitable' subjects. The heterogeneous relationships of professionally-related A-level subjects with university ranking make decision-making for aspirational 16-year-olds problematic: an apparently sensible subject choice for students wishing to prepare for a professional career may, in fact, put them at a disadvantage.