28 BACK TO THEMES U NITE STUDENTS | APPLICANT INDEX REPORT | 2023 Compared to last year, this year’s applicants scored more positively against all questions, although once again over a third (35%) believe they will struggle to keep up with others on the course. Female applicants score more positively than male applicants in this theme. Applicants from minoritised ethnic groups score somewhat lower on this theme, as do applicants from less affluent households. Neurodivergence and mental health conditions seem to affect applicants’ confidence to learn and complete the course, with lower scores for both (overlapping) groups in all but the first question in this theme. Care experienced and estranged applicants score lower than average, and care experienced applicants have a particularly low level of confidence about their academic abilities with an overall Learning theme score of 63. LEARNING 72 The Learning score measures academic confidence among the cohort, combined with the level of comfort with course choice. My chosen course is a good fit for me *I think I will struggle to keep up with other students on my course I am sure I will complete my course I’m confident I can learn the knowledge and skills needed for my course Figure 19 : Breakdown of responses to learning theme questions THEMATIC ANALYSIS - LEARNING 0% 100% 80% 50% 20% 90% 60% 30% 70% 40% 10% ■ Strong disagreement ■ Moderate disagreement ■ Neutral ■ Moderate agreement ■ Strong agreement *For this question, agreement indicates a negative response; the score for this question was reversed when calculating the index score. +1 from 2022