White students are keeping their grip on elite universities despite school struggles

White students are falling to keep pace with students from ethnic minorities at school – but are still keeping their grip on elite universities, according to new research.

Ethnic minority students have shown big gains in test scores as analysis shows that poor white boys are being left behind.

Research shows that white students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds had worse test results than students with a similar background from any other main ethnic group.

And while disadvantaged students from other ethnic groups have made substantial gains in test scores over the last decade, this has only meant white students have slipped further behind as their results have not shown the same level of progress.

But, despite having poorer outcomes at the end of high school, and a lower rate of university entry overall, white students are still more likely to go to elite universities than their peers from other ethnic groups.

The research, carried out by the Sutton Trust, a charity that aims to combat educational inequality, looked at the outcomes in public examinations taken at 16 by students from the most disadvantaged households in England.

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