RISE calls for urgent action as new DfE data show persistent regional inequalities in higher education access

The Ruskin Institute for Social Equity (RISE) is calling on the Labour government to focus on regional differences in higher education participation as new data released by the Department for Education (DfE) on 31 July 2025 reveals enduring regional inequalities in young people’s access to higher education in England.

While national gaps in higher education progression between disadvantaged pupils and their peers have narrowed slightly, the data shows that pupils from low socioeconomic backgrounds are five times less likely to go on to higher education in local authority areas where participation is the lowest than where it is the highest.

Progression rate for disadvantaged pupils continues to fall, despite record-high numbers entering higher education

The annual data release entitled ‘Widening participation in higher education’ includes estimates of state-funded pupils’ progression to higher education by age 19 according to their personal characteristics at age 15. RISE’s analyses specifically focus on higher education progression of learners from free school meal (FSM) backgrounds.

In 2023/24, the percentage of learners from FSM backgrounds progressing to higher education fell for the second consecutive year, dropping to 28.9% from 29% the year before. However, while the participation rate declined, the number of learners from FSM backgrounds entering higher education reached a record high of 25,642 – an increase of 3,445 on the previous year and the largest annual rise since records began in 2005/06.

While the second annual decline in FSM higher education progression rate is a concern, it is being driven to an extent by the increasing numbers of young people who are now FSM eligible. In 2023/24, 88,736 pupils were eligible for FSM.

Persistent gap in FSM higher education progression between different local authority areas

What is more worrying is the entrenched divide in higher education progression between learners from FSM backgrounds living in different parts of the country.

In 2023/24, there was a 50.6 percentage point difference between the best-performing local authority area (Westminster, with a FSM progression rate of 61.9%) and the worst-performing area (Blackpool, at 11.3%). That is only a slight improvement compared to the 51.6 percentage point gap recorded between the areas with the highest and lowest FSM higher education progression rates the year before. Blackpool has seen its FSM progression rate drop nearly 5 percentage points compared to 2022/23, with the actual number of FSM pupils progressing also decreasing.

Narrowing gaps between London and the rest of the country, yet differences remain significant

London remained nearly 20 percentage points ahead of any other region where the participation of learners from FSM backgrounds is concerned. However, the gap between London and the next highest-performing region (West Midlands) has narrowed from 19.1 percentage points in 2022/23 to 18.1 percentage points in 2023/24. The gap between London and the worst-performing region in the country (South West) has also narrowed from 29.8 percentage points in 2022/23 to 29 in 2023/24.

Six of the nine regions showed year-on-year improvements, but East of England – which saw an increase in FSM higher education progression rate of more than 6% the year before – saw a decline of 4.53% in 2023/24.

Reduced gap between FSM and non-FSM pupils nationally, but marked increases in some areas

The gap between FSM and non-FSM pupils going to higher education dropped nationally from 20.8% in 2022/23 to 20.1% in 2023/24. However, in 13 areas that gap increased by over 25%, with three areas – Hackney, Medway and Southampton – seeing a more-than-50% growth in their progression rate gaps between FSM and non-FSM learners.

The Head of RISE, Professor Graeme Atherton, who is also Vice-Principal at Ruskin College, Oxford and Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Regional Engagement) at the University of West London, states: “It is encouraging that the government is looking to make regional differences the centre of its widening access policy, but we need to move quickly to support those areas that year after year are making little progress.”