Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Completing a high-status course at a top university can substantially improve future labour market outcomes, yet access to these opportunities may be unequal. This paper documents inequalities in student to university match using detailed administrative data from schools, universities and tax records in the UK. We produce new measures of match at the university-subject level, matching students on academic admissions standards and graduate earnings. We find students from lower socio-economic groups systematically undermatch throughout the attainment distribution. In addition we highlight a significant gender gap in match. While women and men attend equally selective courses, women enrol in courses with substantially lower expected earnings, conditional on prior attainment. Subject choice accounts for the entirety of this gap for low attainers, but a gap remains for high attaining women, implying that regardless of subject of study, these women attend universities with lower associated earnings. These socio-economic and gender inequalities become even starker among the extremely undermatched.