Warwick ranked 19th most unequal university in the UK

New figures from the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) report that the University of Warwick has the 19th most unequal admission rate when it comes to intake of rich and poor students, along with a large proportion of Russell Group universities.

The University of Hull was placed top of the table for most equal distribution of students, while Cambridge was at the bottom of the table along with St Andrews, Bristol and Oxford.

Out of the bottom 20 universities, Warwick found itself at number 19, with 12 other Russell Group universities.

A spokesman for the University of Warwick described the ranking as “surprising” given that Warwick has “an extensive and holistic” variety of outreach programmes, one of which – an attainment raising bootcamp – was in fact in action yesterday.

“It would in fact be extremely hard to identify a Russell Group university that is more committed than Warwick to widening access, and demonstratively so”, commented the spokesman.

In addition to attainment raising bootcamps, the university also works with 30 primary schools in Coventry and Warwickshire, 340 state schools across the country, and last year presented 967 applicants with contextual offers.

Out of the bottom 20 universities, Warwick found itself at number 19, with 12 other Russell Group universities

A spokesperson for the University of Cambridge warned the BBC that HEPI figures rely on a single measure, suggesting “widening participation in higher education is a complex issue” and that the figures should also be subject to “different interpretation”.

However, the university came under scrutiny last year when David Lammy MP discovered that four fifths of students accepted at Oxford and Cambridge between 2010 and 2015 had parents in top professional and managerial jobs.

HEPI’s analysis here relies on the 2016 Participation of Local Areas (Polar) divide, which splits neighbourhoods into five groups, according to the proportion of young people going to university.

Professor Iain Martin, vice-chancellor of Angela Ruskin University and spokesman for HEPI in the report concluded: “If innate talent and capability were distributed evenly across the population then, consequently, in an ideal world students from all areas would be distributed evenly across institutions with different characteristics.

“If this premise is true, and I would argue that it is, then all universities should be drawing equally from each POLAR quintile.”

Nick Hillman, director of HEPI, added: “This analysis reveals which universities reflect our society best and those which have further to travel.

“The best way to deliver fairer access to selective institutions is the same as the best way to deliver widening participation overall, which is to provide more places.”

Last year the charity Teach First reported that young people in some of the wealthiest areas of England were 18 times more likely to go to university than those in the poorest, based on official child poverty figures and university participation rates.