UCAS showed that an increasing number of students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds in the UK are applying to top universities.
Recently, Ucas showed that in 2024 the number of students coming from disadvantaged areas in the UK who are applying to the most expensive and selective Universities in the Country has increased by up to 7% from last year. In particular, 2,950 for 2023 and 3,160 for 2024. These students are mainly applying to Cambridge and Oxford and are interested in degrees such as medicine, veterinary science, and dentistry. On the other side, applications to these universities, coming from advantaged students went up just by 2%. Although the number of applications coming from disadvantaged students has increased in the last years, the applications of high-ranked groups remain five times higher and this year have increased to 17,080.
Sander Kristel, Ucas interim chief executive, has shown big excitement, describing the new statistics as “encouraging” but Sir Peter Lapi, the founder of the Sutton Trust, explains that the gap has hardly shifted and that disadvantaged students graduate with a higher level of debt, describing the current situation as “shameful and hugely unfair”.
Sir Peter Lapi also focuses on other aspects, such as the huge sacrifices that students coming from disadvantaged families must face every year. Apart from studying as hard as they can to keep their scholarship (if they were eligible to get it in the first place), some of them also have to work full-time hours and skip meals to be able to pay for their education and tuition fees.
Finally, deadlines for undergraduate degrees such as medicine are in October, which is far earlier compared to the common application deadlines that are in January. This factor makes it even harder for families and students to apply and meet the requirements for selective universities.