Conor Ryan wrote for The Independent on UCAS data sharing.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of students apply through Ucas for university, and many join the annual clearing scramble after their A-level results to grab remaining places. In the process, the admissions service collects a wealth of data that researchers would find invaluable in tracking social mobility.

Alan Milburn is right to say that this data should be more freely available to academics. We at the Sutton Trust have worked with Ucas data to compile our reports on the impact of higher tuition fees and the benefit of our access programmes and we look forward to working with Ucas on other projects.

Its data has helped us show that there remains a big access gap, particularly in elite universities, where you are nearly nine times more likely to get a place if you are from a rich neighbourhood. And Ucas itself in recent years has got better at analysing issues like the widening gender gap in admissions.

Read the full piece here.