Enrolling in higher education is a key life moment for more than half of young people in the UK. Foreword Many school leavers will have been studying alongside the same people throughout their secondary education, and many of them might even have transferred from primary school to secondary school en masse. Even those with more recent experience of educational transitions, such as those who moved from a school to a sixth-form college, have generally faced nothing like the scale of transition that enrolling in higher education tends to be. The shift to higher education very often represents the The one finding that comes through repeatedly in the biggest change young people have faced in their lives pages that follow is how unequal the student experience up to that point. Moreover, applying to become a full- can be for people from different backgrounds. If equity in time undergraduate student is risky. If you manage to education is the goal – and society would clearly benefit secure the place you want, you will then likely leave your from people having more equal chances – then there is family, friends and existing support networks and quite great progress still to be made. As the new Government Nick Hillman possibly move to a city in a completely different part of finds its feet and builds its educational policy programme, the country in order to study a discipline in greater depth Ministers should consider what more can be done to Director of the Higher Education than before, while taking on a whole new level of financial deliver an education system that is fairer to those who Policy Institute (HEPI) independence. currently have to fight the hardest to overcome the There are plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong obstacles in their way. – perhaps you will struggle to click with your classmates This important report should help in this endeavour by or flatmates, perhaps you will find it challenging to live showing the sorts of actions that policymakers, the higher on the very modest maintenance support available and / education sector and applicants themselves can take to or perhaps you will find the shift to a more independent make the transition to higher education less fraught – learning style challenging. and to help guarantee success after enrolment. Each year, as confirmed by the separate HEPI / Advance Finally, one reason why this survey of applicants is HE Student Academic Experience Survey, some people so important is that we know less about the applicant discover they have not made as wise a choice as they had experience than we do about people’s experiences hoped. They may not have had good enough information while they are school pupils or university students. when applying or they may have matured as an individual So I congratulate Unite Students for not only shining a in the months between applying and enrolling – or spotlight on the applicant journey but also for doing so something might have changed with the course or consistently year after year, thereby building up a useful institution that originally appealed to them. When such longitudinal picture. The annual nature of the survey things happen, more resilient students, typically those allows for incremental adjustments as well as changes with more confidence and from better-off backgrounds, to those areas covered in more depth. This year, there are better able to cope. Others, such as those who are is a notable focus on international students alongside estranged from their families, are less likely to have the home students, raising many instructive similarities and networks that serve as a safety cushion. differences between these two groups that have not been much discussed in detail before. Unite Students | Applicant Index Report 5