Poorer pupils lag in race for university places – Study

The Telegraph 01 July 2012

Teenagers from the most deprived backgrounds are lagging dramatically behind wealthy peers in the race for university places because of failure at school, according to major research published last week, writes Graeme Paton for The Telegraph.

Academics warned that the gulf in entry rates between rich and poor students was driven by exam results at secondary school – and not discrimination from admissions tutors. Figures show that by the age of 15 the highest-performing pupils from disadvantaged families lag around two-and-a-half years behind bright children brought up in wealthy homes.

The achievement gap in England is around twice as wide as that seen in some other developed countries, it was revealed. Despite an extensive Labour drive to boost access to higher education, it emerged that the richest schoolchildren were around six times more likely to go on top Russell Group universities than the poorest fifth.
Full report on The Telegraph site

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