Now is probably a good time to get your head around the Office for Students’ Association Between Characteristics (ABCs) data.
In a nutshell, OfS uses historic data to build models of access to and continuing in higher education using English 18 year old characteristics and student characteristics. These are predictive (though based on historic data) and offer intersections (allowing you to view the impact of multiple characteristics simultaneously).
ABCs can be understood as a way of exploring these models – which are used to underpin everything from TEF benchmarking to B3 analysis. The data release left experimental status in 2021.
