4 < BACK TO CONTENTS UNITE STUDENTS | THE IMPACT OF SOCIOECONOMIC BACKGROUND ON THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE This report is about UK undergraduate applicants and students who are disadvantaged due to their socioeconomic background. Socioeconomic categories can be difficult to discuss without using language that suggests a deficit or hierarchy, for example “lower socioeconomic groups”. To avoid this, we will use the terms “disadvantaged students” and “disadvantaged applicants” throughout. The data drawn from the 2024 Applicant Index focuses on applicants from households with D and E classification according to the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC), and students who had qualified for free school meals. Asian/Asian British students were over- represented in the D and E groups, and this was also reflected in the demographics of the students who took part in the qualitative research. The qualitative data comes from students studying at the University of Leeds and Manchester Metropolitan University, who took part in focus groups or individual interviews. They were identified by their university to be under-represented due to their socioeconomic background, including students from low participation neighbourhoods, those who were first in their family to go to university and those who had qualified for free school meals. They were a mix of resident and commuter students, and some had taken time out prior to university to work or attend to family issues. A small number had changed university due to significant life events, giving them an insight into other university settings. A few international students also took part in the research and their input was helpful in understanding wider aspects of belonging and alienation during their early months in higher education, and to distinguish these from issues arising due to socioeconomic background. DEFINITIONS