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UCL has higher state intake than many Russell Group peers

2 February 2018

UCL has a higher intake of students from state school backgrounds than Oxford, Cambridge and many of its other Russell Group peers, according to the latest figures from Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

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HESA's  data on widening participation showed that in 2016/2017 UCL's proportion of students from the state sector stood at 67.6%, compared with 57.7% for Oxford and 62.5% for Cambridge, which was only just ahead of Durham's 62.9%.

UCL is still eight points below its benchmark of 75.9% but has higher state school rates than Bristol (64.5%), Edinburgh (66.4%) and Imperial (63.5%).

The main barrier to widening participation for universities like UCL is attainment. UCL is spending about £4 million a year on outreach work with state schools and students to improve attainment levels.

UCL has participated in the national Realising Opportunities scheme since August 2015 under which we use contextual data to assess applicants for admission to the university.

Successful applicants who get an offer can receive a reduction of up to two grades in this offer. We have made more than 100 offers under this scheme since it started.

Following our participation, we are developing our own alternative offer scheme, called Access UCL. This will give students from underrepresented backgrounds the opportunity to receive a reduced offer from UCL on successful completion of an additional assessed element (either through taking the Extended Project Qualification or an assessed piece of work where they are supported by a PHD student). 

The Access UCL scheme, launched by UCL's Provost Professor Michael Arthur in 2016, is currently being piloted in a few departments and will be rolled out across all undergraduate degree programmes from this summer.

HESA's release of widening participation data shows that progress in the sector has slowed overall, and that there remains wide variation in performance between providers. Overall, 11.4% of young entrants (under 21) were from low participation neighbourhoods, up from 10.0% in 2010-11.

Secretary of State for Education Damian Hinds commented: "I am encouraged to see a record proportion of university entrants now coming from state schools and disadvantaged areas."

The Department for Education highlighted that "90.0 per cent of young entrants (under 21) in 2016/17 came from state schools, the highest level recorded." 

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Margaret-Anne Orgill

Tel: +44 (0)20 3108 3845

Email: m.orgill [at] ucl.ac.uk