Schooling effects on subsequent university performance: evidence for the UK university population

From a unique data set identifying the school attended prior to university for a full cohort of UK university students; we examine the determinants of final degree classification. We exploit the detailed school-level information and focus on the influence of school characteristics; such as school type; on subsequent performance of students at university. We estimate that; on average; a male (female) graduate who attended an Independent school is 6.5 (5.4) percentage points less likely to obtain a 'good' degree than is a student who attended an LEA (that is; state-sector) school; ceteris paribus. We also find considerable variation around this average figure across different Independent schools. We find that; for males; the variation in the probability of attaining a 'good' degree according to the Independent school attended can largely be explained by the level of school fees.