In 2014-15, NEON undertook a major piece of work to explore why despite the increase in tuition fees the participation of those from low participation neighbourhoods has not declined. The research looked at the HE application intentions of year 13 students from both low, and ‘non-low’ participation backgrounds to explore the role of cost in their HE decision making and if indeed ‘cost does not matter’. It had a sample size of 1500 learners and was launched in April 2015.
