Smith and Naylor's work analyses data on the cohort of students who left one of the 'old' UK universities in 1993. One of the most striking results concerns the effect on degree performance of having attended an independent school. In that case, the apparently detrimental effect on degree performance of having attended an independent school might arise simply because independent schools tend to produce high A level scores. Controlling for this, the independent school effect remains negative. Of course, the exact magnitude of the difference in the offer would be likely to vary across subjects.
Female students perform better than their male counterparts, on average.
Parental background plays a significant role in a student's performance at university. For example, a student from Social Class group 1 has a higher probability of graduating with a first than an equivalent student from Social Class group 2. The effect runs throughout the Social Class groupings. There are significant differences across universities in the level of students' degree performances. Much of these differences can be explained by differences in the types of courses that are taught and by differences in the students' pre-university qualifications.