UK higher education (HE) offers a diverse range of courses and qualifications, such as first degrees, Higher National Diplomas (HNDs), and foundation degrees. It includes any qualification at Level 4 and above. A BA or BSc (Hons) degree is a Level 6 qualification. Read More

The UK lags behind other EU members on social mobility, scoring lower than countries like Italy and Spain. Results from a study by the Office of National Statistics suggest that this may be the result of both “cycles of poverty” and “cycles of low education.” In the UK, there is a stronger link between the income of parents and that of their children than in many other developed countries. Economic mobility is relatively low in the UK, and educational mobility is, too. What explains the link? Th...

UCAS has today published a set of reports which, for the first time, provides data on individual universities about applications and offer-making by sex, area background and ethnic group. Commenting on the reports, Professor Les Ebdon, Director of Fair Access to Higher Education, said: “Publishing this data is a real step forward for widening access. It increases transparency, and helps universities to evaluate what they do so they can get to the heart of what has most impact." Read Mor...

The gap between the number of men and women entering higher education has reached “record levels”, with women more likely to enter 90% of the UK’s largest universities, new data released by Ucas reveals. Analysis of entry rates of 18-year-olds to 132 higher education institutions across the UK show women were over a third more likely to go to university than men in 2015, up from 27.5% in 2010. Read More

Girls more positive about university than boys, new study finds. Study finds that by year 9 almost 65% of girls thought it was ‘very important’ to go to university, compared with 58% of boys. Girls as young as 13 are more likely to have a positive attitude towards going to university than their male classmates, according to new research published by education charity the Sutton Trust. The study by Oxford University found that by year 9 at secondary school, when children are 13 or 14, almost 65% ...

Commenting on today’s Higher Education Statistics Agency performance indicators for non-continuation in higher education in academic year 2014-15, Professor Les Ebdon, Director of Fair Access to Higher Education, said: “Universities and colleges have made significant progress in improving student retention in recent years, and retention rates in this country are very high by international standards. So I am disappointed to see that the trend of improvement has not continued in 2014-15. Read More...

A new four-year outreach programme will help meet the Prime Minister’s challenging goal to double the participation of students from disadvantaged backgrounds entering higher education by 2020, as announced today by HEFCE. Read more.

Chancellor George Osborne has used his Budget speech to say all schools in England will become academies and extend the school day. Schools must become academies by 2020 or have official plans to do so by 2022, he told MPs. Read More.

NEON’s Summer Symposium, on the 9th and 10th of June at the University of Leicester, is themed around “Rethinking Widening Access: How do we improve outcomes across the student lifecycle?”. This topic is of particular importance in light of the Green Paper, BIS’ Ministerial guidance and OFFA’s strategic guidance on access agreements, all of which placed renewed emphasis on ‘outcomes’ and a ‘broad view of widening participation encompassing a student’s entire lifecycle’. For more information on t...

The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission is an independent statutory body which examines what is happening to child poverty and social mobility in the United Kingdom. This is the third State of the Nation report that the Commission presents to Parliament. In this report we assess: what the UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments are doing (our remit does not cover Northern Ireland); what progress is being made; and what we think will happen in the future. We also examine the contribution man...