Researching Students

A difficult to reach group

Traditionally, students have been viewed as one of the more difficult-to-research sub-groups for two reasons: access to the population and sampling of the population. With regard to accessing students, long holidays, variable work hours, frequent home moves and an overwhelming reliance on mobile phones have conspired against their representative inclusion in many studies. In respect of difficulties in sampling the population, the student market has an unusual and complex structure. There are 170 institutions out there, each with its special culture and biases in gender, age, ethnicity, class and subject specialisms.

Why online research is right

Students enjoy some of the highest levels of internet and broadband penetration in the UK; they are truly digital natives. ONS data (2008) shows that although only 65% of households overall have internet access, 93% of households where the education level of the heads of house is at degree level or higher have online access at home (this definition would apply to many members of our Graduate Panel and a large proportion of our Student- and Future Panels). Compounding this, 93% of 16-24 year olds - the vast majority of our panellists - have used the Internet in the last three months. Furthermore, all students in higher education have excellent internet resources, e.g. coursework now must to be emailed to tutors. The days of handwritten essays are long-since passed. And all UCAS applications must now be made online. We believe that among our target groups, internet access is virtually universal.

Implications for research

Our samples cover virtually every publicly funded higher-education institution in the UK that accepts full-time undergraduate students and virtually every subject taught at undergraduate (and often postgraduate ) level. Our online methods are ideal for reaching these geographically dispersed groups. And our research techniques are developing fast. We now regularly conduct qualitative as well as quantitative research with our panellists.

Click here to view a methodological note about our access panels.