Widening Participation in Higher Education

Annual statistics on young peoples’ participation in higher education by student characteristics, including eligibility for free school meals, gender, ethnicity, special educational need status, first language and region.

The publication focuses on progression rates to higher education by age 19 for state-funded pupils by personal characteristics at age 15 and for A level students at age 17, by school or college type with breakdowns for high tariff higher education providers.

The publication also includes figures at local authority and regional level by gender, ethnic group, special educational need status and free school meal status.

Figures are also provided on progression to higher education by POLAR disadvantage and Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework rating.

The underlying data, including student numbers, is available to download from the Explore data and files section.

Note the latest data covers A level students who sat their exams in 2018/19 and progressed to HE at age 18 in 2019/20 or age 19 in 2020/21.

These students would not have been affected by disruption to assessments caused by COVID-19. However , COVID-19 may have influenced the decision of 19 year olds to enter HE in 2020/21 and comparisons with earlier years should therefore be treated with caution.

Minister for Skills Andrea Jenkyns said: “Getting into university should be about your talents and ability, not the background you come from, and these figures show that under this Government a record proportion of the most disadvantaged students are progressing to higher education – including the highest ever proportion of pupils on free school meals.

“Last year the Government asked universities to reboot their access and participation plans, and we will continue to work with the Office for Students to make sure the brightest pupils from every walk of life are supported to earn places at our most selective institutions.”

Steven Haines, Director of Public Affairs at youth charity Impetus said: “We’re encouraged to see a historic rate of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds progressing to university and a decrease in the access gap after many years of it growing.

“However, even with more people entering higher education than ever, the gap remains stubbornly large. It is not enough to rely on Higher Education expansion to close this gap – we need concerted efforts to ensure young people from all backgrounds get the support they need to access and succeed. This means high-quality tutoring, comprehensive contextual offers, and support to overcome additional barriers such as a sense of belonging.

“We’re proud to support our charity partners The Access Project and Into University to continue providing this – sadly, still very much needed – work.”

www.impetus.org.uk