Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of boys from white working class backgrounds from (a) selective, (b) non-selective and (c) state boarding schools have gone on to study at Russell Group universities in each of the last three years.

Information on pupils’ socio-economic status or whether they would be identified as working class is not collected by Department for Education. Information is instead provided for white male students who had been eligible for free school meals in year 11. This is a commonly used indicator of economic deprivation.

Students who have completed key stage 5 study (A level and other level 3 qualifications) at the 163 fully selective schools are compared with those completing key stage 5 at all other state-funded mainstream schools. Students in sixth form and other further education colleges are not included in this analysis. It should be noted that a small number of ‘comprehensive’ schools use an element of selection in their admissions at the secondary phase, and that many schools may set eligibility criteria for admissions post-16 or for entry to particular courses at key stage 5. Equivalent figures for students in state-funded mainstream boarding schools are given. These schools are also contained in the selective or non-selective lines.

The number and percentage of such students from each school type progressing to study at one of the 24 universities in the Russell Group for at least two terms the following year is given.

The table below shows figures for 2012/13 to 2014/15, the last three years for which information is available, for a) selective schools b) non-selective schools and c) state-funded mainstream boarding schools. Numbers of pupils are shown rounded to the nearest ten, in line with how published information was shown in these years. Percentages are calculated on unrounded figures.

Comparable information on pupil destinations for other groups is published annually on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-destinations