CARE AND LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION course within four years. Care experienced students get lower degree classifications: two-thirds achieve a first or 2.1, compared to four-fifths of non-experienced students. And care experienced students are less likely to get a graduate job. Figure 6: HE outcomes for care experienced and non-experienced students, UK, most recent available year Continuation (remained on course 1 year after 85% enrolment) 90% Completion (gained qualification in 4 years) 79% 89% Attainment (achieved 1st/2.1) 67% 80% Progression (in graduate employment 15 months 71% after leaving HE) 76% Care Experienced Not Care Experienced Source: Office for Students, Student characteristics data: Outcomes data Estranged students, similarly, are more likely to drop out and have lower attainment rates. Experimental data from the Office for Students indicates that that continuation rate for estranged students was 8.2 percentage points lower than non-estranged students. The proportion of estranged students achieving a first or a 2:1 is 13 percentage points lower than non-estranged students.24 This report identifies policy measures to improve outcomes for care experienced and estranged students There is, then, much work to be done if policymakers are to achieve the ambitions for care experienced people in the education system, set out in reports like the MacAlister review and The Promise. Doubling the number of care leavers in higher education, particularly at the most selective universities, will require a dramatic acceleration of progress. As we shall see, there may be real challenge in sustaining current progress. The number of DfE-defined care leavers entering high tariff institutions rose from 50 to 90 between 2020 and 2022, but that was likely driven by issues with school grades following the pandemic, where students were awarded predicted grades, increasing the number meeting university entry requirements. Moreover, as we shall see in the following chapter, the pool of care experienced young people with the school attainment necessary to get into university is shrinking, which will make it harder to hit such targets. In any case, getting care experienced and estranged people through the door is not enough. They also need specific support to ensure more of them complete their 19