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The research project Evaluating the impact of number controls, choice and competition: an analysis of the student profile and the student learning environment in the new higher education landscape sought to develop an understanding of the impact of the stimulation of choice and competition on the sector. The research took place in the context of a volatile policy environment and the report highlights the complex effects of two concurrent and linked processes: one, the ongoing effects of marketisation and how institutional decision-making processes are inflected by the daily realities of a system based on choice and competition; and two, the traceable effects of the specific Student Number Control (SNC) 'core and margin' policy since 2012-13.