Pupils entering higher education

With the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities reporting today, we thought it might be useful to look at some of the official independent data on race. Office for Students data shows that poorer white-British students are proportionally the most under-represented group in higher education in England. Just 16% of white-British pupils entitled to free school meals progressed to higher education in 2019, compared with 73% of Chinese heritage or 59% of those with Black-African heritage. 

What explains this?

Many barriers to higher education have been removed or lowered in recent decades. University admissions have soared, and currently, around 50% of school-leavers in England now take up a place at university. 

However, higher education participation is not equally distributed across ethnic and socio-economic groups in England. White working-class students in particular, have been left behind, as the chart above clearly shows. 

Free school meal entitlement is a useful proxy for relative poverty - an important factor in educational progression and achievement. We see a lower rate of higher education progression for those entitled to free meals across all major ethnic groups in England. White-British pupils especially suffer from poor progression rates to higher education, with just 16% of those entitled to free meals and 41% of all other school-leavers entering higher education. 

The contrast with pupils from several other ethnic backgrounds is immense. Students with Chinese heritage experience the highest rate of progression to higher education, with 73% of those entitled to free meals and 80% of all other pupils progressing. Those with Black-African, Indian and Bangladeshi heritage also progress at a high rate. 

Further research also found that geography has a strong influence on progression to higher education. Areas with low levels of educational attainment also tend to have high unemployment, ill health, poor housing, and low incomes. Crucially perhaps, the research also identified places where successive generations have experienced low educational attainment as performing far worse than communities with higher proportions of ethnic minorities.