A-level pupils from poorer backgrounds will be offered free tuition to help get them into university in an effort to increase diversity. The University of Birmingham is piloting a scheme through an online tutoring company to give 100 youngsters 10 hours of teaching for exams they will sit in the summer, the Daily Telegraph said. The university already runs Access to Birmingham, a programme to help more local children from deprived backgrounds take another step in education. Qualifying cri...

Plans for fast-track degrees with higher annual fees risk adversely affecting the quality of education received by university students, the government has been warned. The two-year degrees proposed by the government will cost the same as a three-year course, meaning annual fees for them will be higher. Ministers are expected to table a bill to lift the current £9,000-a-year cap on tuition costs so universities can charge higher annual rates. Before the official announcement on Friday, conc...

Poorer pupils are increasingly making less progress at secondary school in England compared with their more affluent peers, a study says. The Social Mobility Commission said poorer pupils were often overtaken by their better-off peers even if they had outperformed them at primary school. The gap, which was most apparent in poor white children, has widened every year since 2012. The Department for Education accepted it had "more to do" on the issue. Researchers examined the GCSE results of...

Teenagers' likelihood of applying to university depends heavily on where they live, according to new figures. The study, by the Press Association (PA) news agency, showed London had the highest application rate of 47%, while the South West had the lowest at 32%. It found four times as many teenagers in Wimbledon, south London, applied compared with Havant in Hampshire. Universities UK acknowledged institutions should do more to boost social mobility within their regions. Sir Peter Lampl, ...

Three year attainment gap between poor pupils and their better-off classmates separates Britain's brightest teenage girls. Bright but poor pupils lag behind their bright but better-off classmates by around two years and eight months in maths, science and reading, according to new Sutton Trust research. The attainment gaps within the most able 10% of pupils are even bigger for girls than they are for boys, standing at about three years in science and reading. Read more

The government has failed to make a convincing case for opening a new wave of grammar schools in England, say MPs. The education select committee has cast doubt on claims that they can help social mobility. There is also scepticism about whether an entrance test for grammars can be made "tutor proof". Neil Carmichael, the committee's chair, says the focus on expanding grammars has become an "unnecessary distraction" from improving the school system. The Department for Education has argued...

The absence of aspiration and understanding of opportunities that I see in some students from disadvantaged backgrounds – especially girls – is something I want to address directly. I believe the answer to the lack of female leaders within our society and businesses could partly lie with us in education, and we have found partnerships with the business community leads to stronger results. At both our academies, Whalley Range high school and Levenshulme high school for girls, we have been luck...

University applications have fallen by 5% - with the decline driven by a drop in European Union students and a sharp fall in nursing applications. Fees in England are rising again, and it is the first fall in UK applications since fees were last increased in 2012. The Royal College of Nursing blamed the 23% drop in nursing applications on the removal of bursaries. Universities Minister Jo Johnson said that despite the overall drop, more 18-year-olds were applying to university. These U...

Cambridge University now has fewer privately educated students than universities such as Bristol, Durham and St Andrews, entry figures reveal. Cambridge has only the ninth most privately educated intake, the Higher Education Statistics Agency figures show. Among mainstream universities, Oxford has the fewest state school pupils. The figures show the overall proportion of state school pupils entering UK universities has reached a record high.   Dr Sam Lucy, Cambridge's director of ...

"Urgent attention" must be given to improving education in the North of England, says George Osborne's Northern Powerhouse Partnership think tank. In its first report since being set up last year, the think tank identifies what needs to be done to "build a Northern Powerhouse". "Many issues have been raised with us," said the authors, "but one challenge stood out: education." Mr Osborne said the region was "at a turning point". He set up the think tank last September to champion the ideas he...