ChalkFace fully supports equality of access for all students in education. Access to tertiary education is one of the best ways for young people to help achieve a successful and rewarding career path, therefore it is with some sadness that we read this article.
The gap between poor students and their more affluent peers going to university in the UK is at its widest point for more than a decade despite government pressure to boost campus diversity, figures reveal.
The latest figures show better-off students are still significantly more likely to go to university than their poorer peers and the access gap has widened to its largest point since 2006-07.
The proportion of poorer pupils entering university in the UK has stagnated – with just a 0.1-percentage-point rise in the past year – while the proportion of better-off pupils has risen by 1 percentage point.
The gap between these two groups has increased to 18.6 percentage points in 2017-18, from 17.7 percentage points the year before, which is the largest gap for more than a decade, the data reveals.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said it was “worrying” to see that the university access gap has widened. He said, “There is no single answer to this issue. The most pressing priorities are more investment in crucial early years education where gaps first start to emerge, and in 16-to-19 education which has undergone severe cuts over the past decade. Universities must continue to build on approaches such as the use of contextual admissions which take into account the background of students. And we need a greater focus on the funding and provision of high-quality, independent careers information and advice.”
It would be interesting to see these types of statistics published for Hong Kong. What do you think can be done to increase the numbers of low income background students attending universities?
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