Ministers have been accused of a “total and abject failure” to widen access to top universities for disadvantaged students, after analysis by the Labour party found the proportions attending Russell Group universities had increased by only one percentage point since 2010.

Separately, research by a group of Labour MPs suggests pupils from towns are less likely to attend university than those from London, with a nine percentage point gap between pupils from London and the rest of the country, and a 20-point gap between those from low-income families in the capital and in towns.

Labour said the Russell Group, which includes Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, University College London and Imperial College, had failed to recruit students from neighbourhoods where few traditionally enter higher education.

The party’s analysis of the Higher Education Statistics Agency data found the proportion of students from those areas had increased by one percentage point across all Russell Group universities to 6%, less than half that at non-Russell Group institutions.

Three Russell Group universities had seen the percentage of pupils from disadvantaged neighbourhoods fall since 2010, according to the analysis, while two had seen the total number fall. In 2010, Imperial College London only accepted 60 students from areas where pupils traditionally did not enter higher education; this fell to 50 in 2018. In 2016-17 Imperial accepted a total of 1,225 undergraduates.

Labour said it was clear the Department for Education would not reach the target set in 2013 by the then prime minister, David Cameron, to double the proportion of university entrants from disadvantaged backgrounds by 2020.

The shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, said: “These shocking figures confirm the government’s total and abject failure to widen access to our most selective universities.

“For eight years we have heard warm words from successive education secretaries about improving access and outreach to open up the privileged, closed club of our most selective universities. Sadly, this rhetoric has not been matched by meaningful action.”

Cambridge had the same number of students from low-participation neighbourhoods in 2018 as it did in 2010: 75. Oxford increased its numbers by 15, to 90.

The Labour MP David Lammy, who has campaigned on widening access to Oxbridge, said universities and the government shared some of the blame.

“Many universities spend significant bags of money on access, but can demonstrate little or no positive outcomes,” he said. “Real progress in this area will require radical and punitive action by the government and Office for Students. There is clear market failure and this social apartheid is not in the interest of wider society.

“They should begin to fine universities or reduce funding. Further to this, the government should bring back maintenance grants and increase funding for part-time students and encourage more foundation years.”



The figures came as separate research by the Labour Towns group of MPs found teenagers from towns were far less likely to go on to higher education than students from the capital.

The most recent figures show that 61% of London teenagers went on to some form of higher education in 2016, compared with 50% from towns. In the London borough of Tower Hamlets, 73% from state schools or colleges went on to higher education, more than twice as many as school leavers from towns such as Eastbourne.

The group’s chair, Yvette Cooper, said city teenagers had benefited from initiatives such as the London Challenge, a school improvement programme launched in 2003, but now towns were falling behind.

“The biggest education challenges used to be in the inner cities. Now it’s in industrial and coastal towns,” she said. “Towns and cities are in danger of getting caught in a vicious circle where fewer graduates means less job and business growth, but fewer local opportunities mean it is harder to give teenagers the wider experiences and higher aspirations that universities seek.”

Ahead of A-level results day on Thursday, followed by GCSEs next week, Theresa May’s former chief of staff Nick Timothy has endorsed a report calling on the government to introduce strict selection criteria for technical colleges.

The report, by the former Tory adviser Toby Young, for the Centre for Policy Studies, argues that technical colleges have become “dumping grounds” for failing students and are struggling to fill places, despite severe skills shortages.

Young, who resigned from the board of the Office for Students after criticism of his controversial social media comments, said technical colleges should be allowed to impose strict selection criteria to “break the Gordian knot linking technical education to academic failure”.

In a foreword to the research, Timothy said ministers should take the proposals seriously. “Young people should be encouraged to study technical subjects, and not only when teachers judge that they are not equipped for a purely academic education,” he wrote.

Creating more schools that select by ability is prohibited by the 1998 School Standards and Framework Act. However, Young argued new legislation would not be necessary because the law does not prohibit selection by aptitude.