This paper addresses our ability to analyse progression rates into UK Higher Education (HE) using a range of data available at the individual and neighbourhood levels. The then Department for Children, Schools and Families has recently released data which make it possible to profile national patterns of student educational progression from post-compulsory schooling through to university. However, the linked records lack detailed socioeconomic information, and thus a geodemographic classification is used to analyse the flows of students from different sociospatial backgrounds into the HE system. Rates of progression are shown to vary greatly between these groups, and a disaggregation of HE participants by courses of study demonstrates that the abilities of institutions to attract students from different backgrounds will be constrained by the mix of their course offerings.

Singleton A D, 2010, “The geodemographics of educational progression and their implications for widening participation in higher education” Environment and Planning A 42(11) 2560 – 2580

Twitter observes Remembrance Day 2010Telegraph.co.uk (blog)For the first time we can see how this moment of respect reaches to social networks. During the two minute silence, the number of tweets sent from users in London dropped by a third. In other w…

Twitter observes Remembrance Day 2010Telegraph.co.uk (blog)For the first time we can see how this moment of respect reaches to social networks. During the two minute silence, the number of tweets sent from users in London dropped by a third. In other w…

Wikileaks released the IED attack locations between 2004 – 2009. The Guardian have cleaned up the data and done some nice mapping here. Coinciding with the arrival of my new workstation and ArcGIS install I decided to do some mapping myself. I have put…

Following the Educational Reform Act of 1988, families in England and Wales have been free to identify a preferred school for their children’s secondary education. However, as part of this open selection, the demand from parents opting to send their children to the best performing schools far outstrips the supply of available places at them, and consequently many schools ration places using entry criteria that favour those pupils domiciled close to the school. Through this geographic selection process, choice is spatially sorted and access to the best schools is often crucially dependent upon where parents live. After illustrating this problem, this paper develops an automated modelling technique that can be used to define and map school catchment areas based on the home locations of pupils attending every publically funded school in England. It then develops this framework to create a web based decision support tool to aid parents seeking secondary school places.

Singleton, A.D., Longley, P.A., Allen, R., O’Brien, O. (2010) Estimating secondary school catchment areas and the spatial equity of access. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems doi:10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2010.09.006

Researchers to develop cyberinfrastructure for geography software  University of Illinois News

Hello and welcome to my first blog post! Since this is my first ever blog, you may have to bear with me while I figure out firstly what I’m actually going to use this blog for and, secondly, how I … Continue reading →

Prediction was not a major theme at RSWebSci this year, mainly because scientists are less in the business of predicting things and more in the business of making them happen (or at least commenting on them after they have happened…). … Continue reading →

Microplexes  URBAGRAM

I’ve just returned from the Royal Society’s Web Science conference, which ran over 2 days and featured mathematicians, computer scientists, sociologists and philosophers talking about the web. First, some general criticism. Pitching at the right level to a diverse crowd … Continue reading →