Ethnic minorities substantially more likely to go to university than their White British peers, says the Institute for Fiscal Studies
Ethnic minority groups in England are now more likely to go to university than their White British peers, according to new research published today.
Overall, 32.6 per cent of White British students end up at university, a lower rate than any ethnic minoritiy group. Indian and Chinese pupils are twice as likely to go to university than their White British peers.
One of the most striking findings of the study from Institute for Fiscal Studies researchers Ellen Greaves and Claire Crawford were that Chinese pupils in from lowest socio-economic quintile (the bottom fifth in terms of a variety of economic and social measures) were 10 per cent more likely to go to university than White British pupils from the highest socio-economic quintile.
| Lowest quintile | Highest quintile | Overall | |
| White British | 12.5 |
54.8 |
32.6 |
| Other White | 31.5 | 60.7 | 43.8 |
| Black African | 53.1 | 64.1 | 56.6 |
| Black Caribbean | 29.9 | 52.9 | 37.4 |
| Other Black | 38.3 | 47.4 | 41.2 |
| Indian | 53.3 | 81.0 | 67.4 |
| Pakistani | 36.4 | 64.1 | 44.7 |
| Bangladeshi | 45.3 | 60.3 | 48.8 |
| Chinese | 65.5 | 81.5 | 75.7 |
| Other Asian | 44.4 | 65.8 | 56.3 |
| Mixed | 23.5 | 62.0 | 39.1 |
| Other | 40 | 58.7 | 44.2 |
Only 12.8 per cent of White British pupils in the bottom fifth socio-economically went to university – the lowest proportion of any ethnic group and compared to 65.5 per cent for Chinese students from the same group.
The reasons why this has occurred is difficult to find, with the IFS explaining that pupils of Black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic origin tend to perform worse in national tests taken at school, but are then more likely to go to university.