Girls who finished year 12 at a private school are most likely to go to university, as the gap between independent, Catholic and government school students who go on to higher education widens to its highest level in recent years.

Private school students were nearly 15 per cent more likely to go to university in 2016 than students at Catholic schools, and nearly 24 per cent more likely than government school students, according to a new report by the Australian National University on what NSW secondary students go on to do after leaving school.

The growing gap can be attributed to the number of Catholic students going to university falling significantly from 62.5 per cent in 2015 to 53.9 per cent in 2016.

At the same time, the number of private school students going to university grew from 64.3 per cent to 68.7 per cent.