Degree attainment gap narrowed during Covid-19

Hesa data show gap narrowed across the UK, but regional differences remain

More students from the most deprived backgrounds were awarded first or upper-second degrees in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic, narrowing the gap between the most and least advantaged.

Experimental data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show that the degree attainment gap between the most and least deprived students across the UK narrowed by around 2 percentage points during the Covid-hit academic years of 2019-20 and 2020-21.