University education in England is entrenching inequality, according to an academic study examining how the provision of limited loans exacerbates the difference in life chances of those with and without family wealth. The current system is predicated on students being able to supplement their income from family wealth and leaves those from less advantaged backgrounds to struggle, it is claimed. A mismatch has grown, the study says, between the anticipated benefits of a university education and ...

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner says government ‘slamming the doors’ on talented students on low incomes. The government is facing calls for an urgent review of student financing after official figures showed that the number of state school pupils going on to higher education had dropped the year tuition fees soared to £9,000. A report by the Department for Education showed that the percentage of state-educated pupils going on to universities and colleges in 2013/14 fell to 62%, from 66...

Boys are nearly twice as likely as girls to have fallen behind by the time they start school, a report says. Save the Children says a quarter of boys in England - 90,000 - started reception class struggling to speak a full sentence or follow instructions. The report, based on a University of Bristol study, says children who start school behind often never catch up. A Department for Education spokesperson said "we are making a significant investment in the early years sector". The report compared...

A new national research project undertaken by NEON (@NEONHE) with support from the University and College Union (@UCU) has found that an increase in fees would see young people who are eligible for free school meals most likely to reconsider going to university, followed by non-white young people. The report, based on an online survey of over 1,500 students and two focus groups, also found that non-white young people and free school meal recipients were most likely to choose low-cost university ...

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% ...