Access to universities has stalled, experts warn

Progress on widening participation at universities appears to have hit a plateau, data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show.

Figures for the 2017-18 academic year show that the percentage of UK undergraduate students from state schools shrank by 0.2 percentage points, down to 89.8 per cent from 90 per cent in 2016-17. The last time the measure was at 89.8 per cent was in 2014-15.

However, there was a very slight increase in the proportion of UK undergraduates from disadvantaged backgrounds attending university at 11.6 per cent, up 0.2 percentage points since the previous year.