A privileged background is most important factor in whether a child goes to university

HAVING privileged parents is the most important factor for determining whether a child will go to university, a study suggests.

Researchers found that children from wealthy families with a highly educated mother and father were far more likely to go on to higher education than those from poorer backgrounds with a greater genetic propensity for education.

Prof Sophie von Stumm, the lead author of the University of York study, said: “Genetics and socioeconomic status capture the effects of both nature and nurture, and their influence is particularly dramatic for children at the extreme ends of distribution.

“However, our study also highlights the potentially protective effect of a privileged background.

“Having a genetic make-up that makes you more inclined to education does make a child from a disadvantaged background more likely to go to university, but not as likely as a child with a lower genetic propensity from a more advantaged background.”

Researchers scored the effect of DNA variants on 5,000 children born in the UK between 1994 and 1996 to test how inherited genetic differences predict children’s educational success.

Only 47 per cent of children with a high genetic propensity for education but a poorer background made it to university.

This compares with 62 per cent of those with a low genetic disposition but parents that are more affluent.

Youngsters with good genes for education who were also from wealthy and well-educated family backgrounds had the greatest advantage with 77 per cent going to university.

Meanwhile, only 21 per cent of children from families with low socioeconomic status and low genetic propensity for academia carried on into higher education, the study, published in the journal Developmental Science, found.