Coding of Socio-Economic Data from New Entrants to Higher Education for the Higher Education Authority.

Description

Data will be gathered on access and participation by under- represented students in higher education at registration. This information is provided to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) as part of the annual return for the HEA Student Record System (SRS) which is administered by the Statistics Section. The paper-based or on-line registration system of each institution includes additional questions on disability status and on socio-economic and cultural background. The information gathered assists both institutions and the HEA in progressing national policy on equity of access to higher education, for example setting targets for the participation and graduation of students from under-represented groups. The successful tenderer will be required to code the socio- economic questions using the procedures engaged by the Central Statistics Office in coding socio-economic data returned in the 2011 Census. The questions will be coded to give a socio-economic group code for the father and mother. It will also be used to assign a social class code for each parent. The consultants will then return this coded data to the higher education institutions. The contract was awarded to Insight Statistical Consulting