University access gap grows between London and rest of England

Inequalities in higher education participation between English regions have risen to record levels, new figures suggest, with the gap between the number of men and women studying also wider than it has ever been before. 

Department for Education data released on 27 February shows that 49 per cent of young people who turned 15-years-old in 2017-18 had entered higher education in England by 2022-23.

This entry rate among English 20-year-olds was a large increase on the year before and the highest level since figures began in 2001-02 – when just 34 per cent entered higher education.

Tony Blair’s famous ambition to have half of all 18-to-30-year-olds participate in higher education was met in 2019. And though the current Labour government has not been as explicit with its messaging, it has put forward an agenda of widening access.

More recent figures show that the entry rate for UK 18-year-olds was 40.6 per cent for the 2025-26 academic year, but is in decline. However, this figure is disputed by some for its accuracy.

The DfE statistics track the progress of all pupils at state and special schools across the years but exclude those from independent schools.

London once again had the highest participation rate in England, with almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of young people in the capital entering the sector by age 20 in 2022-23 – up from 61 per cent for the year before.

This was a record 15 percentage points more than the the South East, the next best performing region, and 20 percentage points above the worst performing, the South West.

It marks the third year in a row that the regional inequality gap has increased and the biggest jump for six years.

Although London has long boasted higher participation rates in general, a recent report found that inequality within the capital has also grown to “unprecedented levels”.

The DfE figures also show record gaps between men and women. Among boys who turned 15 in 2017-18, 42 per cent had entered higher education by 2022-23.

This was up from 41 per cent among the previous cohort and one of the largest increases ever.

However, the rate among young women shot up by 2.5 percentage points to a record 56.3 per cent.

This meant that the gender gap also hit a new high, at 14 percentage points, and almost double what it was a decade previously.

Separate data from the Office for National Statistics suggest that unemployment among young people in the UK is rising.

It shows that 987,000 16-24-year-olds (13 per cent) were not in work, education or training between October and December – the largest for 11 years.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com