The concept of “undermatch” – students attending courses that are less selective than might be expected given their academic attainment – has divided opinion.
Should the possibility of better outcomes mean we attempt to channel students towards courses where they will have similar attainment to their peer group? Or is this a reductive and potentially damaging approach? To answer this question, we need to work directly with teachers and students to see what using undermatch analysis can achieve on the ground.
My organisation, Causeway Education, has teamed up with Gill Wyness and Lindsey Macmillan at UCL, two of the academics behind the original study on undermatch, on a pilot to help them plug their methodology directly into a small number of schools.
From analysing previous cohorts’ higher education choices and destinations alongside attainment, the team at UCL have identified the types of students in each school who typically undermatch. In some schools, it was girls on free school meals, in others it was high-attainers, particular ethnic groups or combinations of these factors.
