Local and commuter students

The issue

We know that local graduates are more likely to come from underrepresented groups and have lower progression outcomes than their peers.

Research has also highlighted that lower attainment for local graduates is also an issue, particularly for commuter students.

We discussed the challenges and opportunities for local and commuter students at our Insight event in May 2019:

Key facts

1. 69 percent of graduates responding to the 2015-16 Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey sought post-study employment in their home region. Therefore, opportunities for successful progression into skilled employment for more than two-thirds of graduates depend on the demand for graduate skills in their home regions or sub-regions. Graduates who are more mobile typically achieve better outcomes.
2. A report from Centre for Cities found that London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds accounted for 35 per cent of all employment for 2014 and 2015 graduates in England.
3. Students from disadvantaged groups are often more likely to be studying locally. A report from the Sutton Trust shows that students from the lowest National Statistic Socio-economic Classification class are around three times more likely to study locally than those from the highest class, and there is a similar gap between those who studied at state school compared to private school pupils.
4. Students from some ethnic minority groups (British Pakistani and British Bangladeshi) are over six times more likely than white students to stay living at home and study locally.
5. One third of universities and colleges (67 out of 201) referenced local and commuter students in the 2020-21 access and participation plans that were approved by November 2019.

Definitions

In our associations between characteristics analysis we defined local students as those who live in the same travel to work area as their university or college. This includes students who live in a typical commuting distance of their provider.