ABSTRACT
In the first place, it is clear that England and Wales accord more attention than most countries to the need for choice in higher education. The emphasis on residential provision, the generous grants system, and the competition for places have all been important factors in allowing students to be mobile and encouraging them to devote considerable attention to their choice of institution. The suggestion that pupils do not examine the alternatives open to them in terms of their likely differential effects is important, because it is in these effects that the significance of the pupil's choice chiefly lies. Some studies of this kind have already been conducted in the United States, and their results have been reasonably promising, though at the moment they do not offer any simple basis on which to 'match' or 'fit' students to their most appropriate institutions.
