Closing the forgotten gap: implementing a 16-19 student premium
Think tank: Education Policy Institute
Author(s): Emily Hunt
July 23, 2024
This report from UK think tank the Education Policy Institute calls for a 16-19 student premium to tackle the sizeable attainment gap facing disadvantaged 16–19-year-olds.
Our new report, supported by Unbound Philanthropy, calls for a 16-19 student premium to tackle the sizeable attainment gap facing disadvantaged 16–19-year-olds. Building on recent research by EPI which has shown disadvantaged students are 3.2 grades behind their peers by the time they finished 16-19 education, the report makes recommendations to the new government about how a new student premium might work, who would be eligible and the likely costs.
The report recommends that the student premium should be based on student-level and area-level measures of disadvantage. This would be additional to existing 16-19 funding and would be a fixed, per-student amount received by institutions. Setting the student premium at an initial rate to match the secondary school pupil premium, the policy would cost around £340 million annually and support 28 per cent of 16-19 year old students.
