White teens trail others at university

WHITE teenagers have fallen even further behind other ethnic groups in university admissions, figures show.

The proportion of white English 18-year-olds getting a place this summer was 29.3 per cent, while for the highest-performing group – Chinese students – it was 63 per cent.

That gap has widened from 28.7 percentage points the previous year to 33.7.

Among the Asian ethnic group it was 45.8 per cent, for the black ethnic group was 40.4 per cent and in the ‘any other’ category the figure was 40.1 per cent.

Admissions service Ucas said that, while entry for all groups increased this year, the increase for white pupils was the lowest at just 1.5 per cent.

White pupils have consistently been the lowest- performing group for university entry since 2007, with the gap between them and their peers widening over the last decade.

It means white pupils are statistically least likely to attend university of all ethnicities, and are becoming less likely to do so as the years go on.

Ucas said that pupils from the Chinese group were 2.2 times more likely than white teenagers to enter higher education.

The data – for state school pupils – comes amid growing fears that poor white students are falling behind at school.

Education Secretary Justine Greening has voiced concern for teenagers in isolated coastal towns who do not fulfil their potential in exams.

Campaigners have warned such youngsters may lack role models and do not have access to the same high- quality teaching as their London counterparts.

Yesterday, Ucas called for universities to take students’ background into account more when deciding who gets a place.

It said they should look at ‘contextual data’ – where a teenager grew up, whether they were in care, and family circumstances – when looking at admissions.