Third of private school bursaries and scholarship funds go to high-income families

The study, published in the British Journal of Sociology of Education, analysed 25 years of nationally representative UK household finance data, covering 1997/8 to 2023/24*, to examine the financial support offered by independent schools and measure how effective they are at mitigating the social exclusiveness of private schooling.

Findings show lower-income families receive 17% of all grant funds, versus 30% and 18% for high- and middle-income families respectively.

The researchers found that the proportion of pupils receiving some form of grant increased over this 25-year period, rising from 8% to 14%, with an average of 10.1% of private school pupils receiving support across the timeframe.

However, the value of these grants fell sharply relative to rapidly rising fees. The average grant covered 57% of total school fees in 1997–2000; by 2021–24 it had fallen to 27%, equivalent to £6,400**. Overall, bursary and scholarship funds account for only 3.4% of total fees.

However, soaring private school fees eroded the real value of these grants, which failed to keep pace, meaning there was no change in the relative grant support offered by private schools in a quarter of a century. 

Co-author Professor Francis Green (UCL Institute of Education) said: “Many of Britain’s elite private schools have their beginnings in centuries-old foundations whose endowments were originally intended for the education of the children of the poor.  

“Today, bursaries and scholarships are claimed to be the primary means for independent schools to temper elements of their social exclusivity, which, with average school fees being 58% of median disposable household income, are out of reach for most families.

“Our research, however, shows that while such support has become more common in the last 25 years, it has relatively diminished in scale and remains very limited in its effectiveness in reaching children from less affluent backgrounds.” 

Further findings show that bursaries and scholarships had only limited success in effectively reaching pupils from lower income families. On average, middle-income families were the biggest beneficiaries, with an average grant of £1,038** per pupil. Pupils from lower income families received considerably less, with an average grant of £787** per pupil. Pupils from the highest income families received an average grant of £396**. 

The study also found that bursaries and scholarships were far more prevalent among children of secondary school age than primary (15% versus 4%) and most common among private school pupils in the South of England (15% versus 7% in the North of England).  

Co-author Dr Golo Henseke (UCL Institute of Education) said: “Charities, of which 70% independent schools are registered as, have a legal obligation to provide a ‘public benefit’ for the less well-off, but our study suggests that current provisions do not make a substantive impact on the social exclusivity of private schools.  

“A substantial enlargement and re-direction of charitable funds towards lower-income families, plus increased awareness of bursaries would be needed if private schools were to reverse the downward trend in the progressiveness of scholarships and bursaries and increase their impact.” 

Links 

• Professor Francis Green's academic profile
• Dr Golo Henseke's academic profile
• UCL Education, Practice & Society
• UCL Institute of Education

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• Credit:monkeybusinessimages

Media contact

Sophie Hunter

E: sophie.hunter [at] ucl.ac.uk