Who actually goes to university?

Access to higher education (HE) is a major policy issue in England and Wales. There is concern that children from lower socio-economic backgrounds are far less likely to get a degree. We analyse the changing association between socio-economic background and the likelihood of going to university, using data from the Youth Cohort Study (YCS), spanning the period 1994–2000. We find evidence of substantial social class inequality in HE participation but conclude that this is largely due to education inequalities that emerge earlier in the education system. Conditional on GCSE and A level performance, we find no additional role for socio-economic background or parental education in determining pupils’ likelihood of going to university.