Dr Catherine Dilnot

MA, ACA, MSc, PhD

Senior Lecturer

Oxford Brookes Business School

Teaching and supervision

Courses

Modules taught

Personal and Professional Development (UG)
Research in Accounting (UG)
Dissertation in Accounting (UG)
Research Project (PG)

Catherine teaches at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, specialising in professional development and research methods. In her long time at Brookes she has run a large variety of modules, particularly on introductory accounting, auditing theory, financial accounting theory and financial reporting.

Research

Catherine's particular research interest is in fair access to universities and to leading professions, with a particular interest in the accounting profession and the role of subjects and qualifications taken age 16-19. She became interested in this topic through contact with students during her time running the undergraduate degree programmes, and through commissioned work for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales on the recruitment of graduate women to the profession.

She has devised a typology of A levels according to their efficacy in access to high status universities and uses administrative datasets and anonymised professional firm applications data, working with major graduate employers, in her analysis.

Her main current project is jointly with Lindsey Macmillan and Gill Wyness at UCL, investigating the relationship between 16-19 subjects and qualifications and adverse university outcomes, with emphasis on the gaps between students from different social backgrounds. The project is funded by the Nuffield Foundation, who are also funding a three year project on access to elite occupations on which Catherine will be a co-investigator from 2022-25.

Research impact

Catherine's work on subjects, qualifications and outcomes as well as predicted grades has gained considerable press interest. She briefs the Department for Education on policy relating to level three qualifications reform. The work with professional firms has resulted in changes to their application processes aimed at making recruitment more inclusive.

Centres and institutes

Centre for Diversity Policy Research and Practice

Projects

Educational Choices at 16-19 and Adverse Outcomes at University

Projects as Principal Investigator, or Lead Academic if project is led by another Institution

Inequalities in access to elite occupations (led by University College London) (01/07/2022 - 30/06/2025), funded by: Nuffield Foundation, funding amount received by Brookes: £47,860

Publications

Dilnot C, Macmillan L, Wyness G, 'The path increasingly travelled: vocational entry qualifications, socioeconomic status and university outcomes'
British Educational Research Journal 49 (6) (2023) pp.1142-1160

ISSN: 0141-1926 eISSN: 1469-3518
Abstract Published here Open Access on RADAR
Wyness G, Macmillan L, Anders J, Dilnot C, 'Grade expectations: How well can past performance predict future grades?'
Education Economics 31 (4) (2022) pp.397-418

ISSN: 0964-5292 eISSN: 1469-5782
Abstract Published here Open Access on RADAR
Burgess S, Chande R, Dilnot C, Kozman E, Macmillan L, Sanders M, 'Role models, mentoring and university applications: evidence from a crossover randomised controlled trial in the United Kingdom'
Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning 20 (4) (2018) pp.57-80

ISSN: 1466-6529 eISSN: 2045-2713
Abstract Published here Open Access on RADAR
Dilnot C, 'The relationship between A-level subject choice and league table score of university attended: the "facilitating", the "less suitable" and the counter-intuitive'
Oxford Review of Education 44 (1) (2018) pp.118-137

ISSN: 0305-4985 eISSN: 1465-3915
Abstract Published here Open Access on RADAR
Dilnot C, 'How does the choice of A-level subjects vary with students' socio-economic status in English state schools?'
British Educational Research Journal 42 (6) (2016) pp.1081-1106

ISSN: 0141-1926 eISSN: 1469-3518
Abstract Published here Open Access on RADAR

Dilnot, C Boliver, V, 'Admission to medicine and law at Russell Group universities: the impact of A-level subject choice' in Penny-Jane Burke, Annette Hayton, Jacqueline Stevenson (ed.), Evaluating Equity and Widening Participation in Higher Education, Trentham Books (Imprint of UCL IoE Press) (2018)

ISBN: 9781858567037
Published here Open Access on RADAR

Dilnot C, Macmillan L, Wyness G, 'Educational Choices at 16-19 and University Outcomes', (2022)
Abstract
Traditionally, students in the UK entered university having studied A-levels (the main ‘level 3’ qualification in England) at age 16-19. But this has changed in recent cohorts with nearly one in four English students entering with just BTECs or a mixture of BTECs and A-levels. This flexibility in entry routes is important for the widening participation by disadvantaged groups seen in recent years, with 40% of the least privileged quintile of recent cohorts entering with BTECs compared with less than a tenth of the most privileged.
English first degree students at UK universities have largely successful outcomes, with high proportions of first years continuing to their second year of study and high proportions of final year students graduating with a first or upper second class degree. Using administrative data for three recent cohorts of entrants and graduates linked to their school attainment we find differences in university outcomes between those students entering with just BTECs rather than just A-levels, even when comparing students with similar backgrounds and prior achievement, on the same course and at the same university. Those students who have just BTEC qualifications are:
- almost twice as likely (11.4% chance compared with 6.0% chance) to drop out as a similar ‘average’ student with just A-levels;
- around 1.7 times as likely to repeat the first year in the same subject at the same university as a similar ‘average’ student with just A-levels (5.9% compared with 3.4%);
- around 1.4 times more likely to graduate below a 2:1 than a similar student with A-levels (24.9% chance compared with 17.7%).
However, it is very important to note that the overwhelming majority of students entering with BTECs or combinations do not drop out or repeat, and the majority of those graduating do so with at least a 2:1. These are considerable successes for these students, who without the availability of BTECs might not have had the opportunity to attend university at all. So while it is clearly important to address these differences in outcomes, we support the existence of routes into higher education that students from non-traditional backgrounds successfully use. We therefore have concerns about recently published Department for Education proposals to reduce significantly the number of Level 3 BTEC qualifications that it will fund.
The differences in outcomes we find can be almost entirely explained by differences in academic performance in module scores throughout university, implying that the lower success rates of BTEC students is reflecting lower academic performance, as opposed to non-academic reasons, such as BTEC students deciding that university is not for them. More work is needed to establish the reasons for these patterns of lower success among BTEC students, for example examining differences in methods of assessment, and evaluating whether the increased external assessment of reformed BTECs will address these gaps in outcomes. Further support throughout their studies for BTEC students, together with further joint working between schools, colleges, universities and qualification providers seems the appropriate response.
Our work also includes an analysis of how holding A-level subjects described as ‘preferred’ and ‘non-preferred’ for entry to university, which also varies by social background, is related to these outcomes at university, and whether having a non-required entry subject in an A-level or BTEC in the same subject as the university course for ten popular degrees is related to student outcomes.
Published here

Working papers

Anders, J., Dilnot, C., Macmillan, L. and Wyness, G., 2020. Grade Expectations: How well can we predict future grades based on past performance. Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, UCL Institute of Education, University College London.

Dilnot, C., 2015. A taxonomy of A-level subjects according to the expressed preferences of Russell Group universities: Who does what. London, University College London Institute of Education

Professional information

Memberships of professional bodies

Member of Insitute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales

Conferences

Dilnot, C, McMillan, L, Wyness, G. (2021). 'Choices at 16 and university outcomes: Qualifications, subjects and socio-economic background'. Paper presented at the British Education Research Association Annual Conference, Online, September.
Dilnot, C. (2018). 'The relationship between A-level subject choice and league table score of university attended: the 'facilitating', the 'less suitable' and the counter-intuitive. Presented at the Royal Economic Society Annual Conference, Brighton, March.
Dilnot, C. (2016). 'How does choice of A-level subjects vary with students' socio-eonomic status in English state schools?' Presented at the Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies Annual International Conference, Bamberg, October.
Dilnot, C. and Handley, K. (2011) 'Peering in to the future: final year students’ perceptions (and misperceptions) of accountancy careers'. Paper presented at the Oxford Brookes Business School - Burgundy Business School Joint Research Conference, Dijon, May.
Dilnot, C. (2010) 'Brookes ACES Accounting for Charities: Engaging Students'. Paper presented at the Brookes Teaching and Learning Conference, Oxford, UK, July.
Dilnot, C. (2008) 'Charity accounts users: Rhetoric or reality?'. Paper presented at the BAA South East Area Group Annual Conference, Oxford Brookes University Business School, September.
Dilnot, C. (2007) 'Who uses charities' accounts in England and Wales, and what do they use them for?'. Paper presented at the Financial Reporting and Business Communication Conference, Cardiff, July.