The higher education entry rate for the most under-represented students in England has fallen by a record margin, according to new figures.
Two weeks after A-level results day, data from the admission service Ucas showed that around 27,000 18-year-olds from areas with the lowest levels of university participation had been accepted onto courses.
Analysts at dataHE said that the entry rate for this group had fallen from 24.7 per cent last year to 23.1 per cent in 2023, which their modelling showed was the largest on record.
Mark Corver, co-founder of dataHE, said this drop – which pushed the entry rate below the pre-pandemic trend – was “unprecedented” and equated to these young people becoming more than 6 per cent less likely to go to university.
