Born too late? How relative age affects college enrolment patterns

ABSTRACT

The month in which we are born affects our experience of and progress through the education system and is known as the relative age effect. This study reports on a project in which the author conducted mixed methods research into the impact of different birth months on enrolment patterns and participant experiences within further education in England, a neglected sector for this research area. This paper challenges the current view that the negative impact of being born later in an academic year cohort dissipates with age. Analysis of the findings shows that enrolment patterns are skewed towards the summer months for those entering the further education college in the study and that the month of May should be included in the definition of summer months. Summer-born study participants were aware of their relative age at a social and physical level, but made no connection to their academic progress. This paper argues that relative age is a significant driver for enrolment to and, therefore, subsequent performance within further education, which should be monitored alongside other better known disadvantage factors, with the aim to reduce and eliminate this systemic disadvantage.

KEYWORDS:

• Relative age effect
• further education
• disadvantage

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The research formed part of my thesis for an EdD and there was no external funding or grants involved

Notes on contributors

A. Haig Smith

Anne Haig Smith is Director of the Applied Learning Foundation at Activate Learning, a mixed school and college educational group in England. Her role includes teacher training and development and strategic oversight of English and Mathematics. She is a steering group committee member of the Research College Group, chairing the Ethics Committee. Anne’s research focuses on inclusion, social justice and barriers to success in general further education colleges. Anne is a Director at Activate Learning, a multi-campus vocational college group, headquartered in Oxford, UK. She has had an extensive career in further education, teaching, managing and leading a wide variety of provision. She currently leads strategically on quality improvement within Apprenticeships, research and teacher education and development.