Studying still a privilege
In the last twenty years, participation in higher education has steeply increased around the world, most of this increase has occurred in the last decade. This trend also occurred in England where in the last ten years participation rose with 6 percentage points, an increase of 19 percent. However, this increase has not been equally distributed among gender, geographic location and socioeconomic status, ‘Trends in participation for young men and women’ by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) shows.
Socioeconomic gender gap
Women are more likely to enter the English higher education system, and the gap has widened in the last twenty years, the report shows. At this time, English women are 22 percent more likely to enter university than their male peers. “The difference in participation rates for men and women is exacerbated when we consider people living in the most disadvantaged areas. In these areas young women have a participation rate of 23 percent, six percentage points higher than the rate for young men. This means young women in the most disadvantaged areas are 35 percent more likely to participate in higher education by the age of 19 than young men.”
The difference in participation rates between young people living in the most advantaged and most disadvantaged areas remains large. Although participation rates increased in both advantaged and disadvantaged areas, with proportional increases of 16 and 52 percent respectively, the participation gap between them has remained broadly stable at around 40 percentage points. “Young people in the most disadvantaged areas would need to treble their participation rate in order to match the rate of those from the most advantaged areas,” the report concludes.
Student city London
Large differences are also found in the participation rates of young people across the different English regions. Participation rates have increased in all regions, and the gaps in participation between regions outside London have narrowed. “However, the biggest increase in participation rate was in London, the part of the country which already had the highest rate at the start of the study period. The gap in participation between London and the rest of the country has therefore widened. This participation gap is widest between young people in London and the North East, with the former being 43 percent more likely to participate in higher education than the latter.”
“The large increase in young participation rates in London extends to those living in the most disadvantaged areas. That is to say, young people from the most disadvantaged areas (defined nationally) who also live in London experienced a much greater increase in participation rates than others who are equally disadvantaged but live outside London.”
The gaps in participation rates between London and other parts of England become wider when smaller areas are considered. “For example, the participation rate in Wimbledon, the region with the highest participation rate nationally, was 68 per cent, four times greater than in Nottingham North, the constituency with the lowest rate. These large gaps exist despite the young participation rate increasing in almost every region. Furthermore some areas which have had very big increases in participation like Manchester Central and Sheffield still have rates that are among the lowest in the country.”
