The Information in an Experiment

A pplications for university places are down for the 2012/13 academic year, but it is too early to assess the impact of the near trebling of tuition fees on demand for higher education or on socioeconomic inequality. In recent research, we have aimed to find out what school students know about the costs and benefits of going to university – and what would be the impact on their knowledge and aspirations of an 'information campaign'. We invited all secondary schools in London to take part in the study. Of these, 54 schools participated in the main evaluation, which took place during the 2010/11 academic year. The participating schools were above average in terms of GCSE performance and relatively less deprived as measured by the percentage of students eligible for free school meals. At each school, all students in year 10 (14/15 year olds) completed a 40-minute survey (under exam conditions). Eight to 12 weeks later, they completed a very similar survey. In between the two periods, some schools were given an information package about the costs and benefits of staying in education, whereas other schools were given the package after their students had completed the second survey. The focus of the survey was on the costs and benefits of staying in full-time education, with a particular emphasis on university. The fieldwork took place at the time that the hike in fees was announced, so the results show not only the impact of the information campaign but also the short-term impact of media reporting of the fee increase. We measure media reporting as the number of articles about fees that appeared on the BBC website between January 2010 and the survey dates (which varied across the schools so that students had different levels of exposure to the media). Schools were randomly assigned to two groups: 'treatment' schools, which got the information package between the two surveys; and 'control' schools, which got it What impact did media reporting of the near trebling of tuition fees have on school students' understanding of the costs and benefits of university? A CEP experiment run by Sandra McNally and colleagues sheds light on this question as well as on broader issues about the importance of clear information about the value of higher education.