Students from the most affluent families make up almost a third of all those enrolled on undergraduate degrees at British universities, with new figures suggesting that institutions may be going backwards on widening participation. 

shows that 288,010 students at UK institutions in 2024-25 came from families in the top tier of the UK’s socio-economic classification system. This group is defined as those working in higher managerial and professional occupations, such as doctors, lawyers and engineers.

At 31 per cent, this was up from 29 per cent the year before and 25 per cent in 2021-22. Students from this background have made up the largest contingent of the eight socio-economic groups for the past three years.

Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said the rapid rise in the proportion of students from higher socio-economic backgrounds signals deeper structural shifts in society as the UK enters an era of declining absolute social mobility.

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“As the race for opportunities intensifies, access to higher education – especially the most selective universities – is becoming more socially stratified again,” he told ̽����Ƶ.

“We may come to see the post-war period as a one-off – a golden era in which universities loosened the grip of class, as we return to a system where the link between social origins and outcomes is strengthening once again.”

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Individuals from families with lower managerial and professional backgrounds, including nurses, teachers and journalists, have consistently made up about 25 per cent of the total student population for the past few years.

The proportion of students from intermediate occupations, which includes clerical and service roles, has fallen slightly to 12 per cent.

Katy Shaw, director of creative communities at Northumbria University, said the Hesa data reflects both shifts in the labour market and the enduring weight of social class on who benefits most from higher education.

“Widening participation isn’t just about getting students through the door; it’s about ensuring they can thrive, achieve and translate their degrees into meaningful opportunities and good jobs in industries that are growing.

“At the same time, universities can’t rely on any single metric to judge success.”

Shaw said that what matters is building a lived experience evaluation that tracks progression and the longer-term outcomes of higher education.

Despite the use of contextual admissions and other practices, Stephen Gorard, professor of education and public policy at Durham University, said the “very, very strong link between income and attainment” was perhaps still more important.

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“There’s no evidence that the attempts to improve intakes to universities, and there have been serious attempts to do it, have been successful.”

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The largest fall in recent years has come from students of parents working in semi-routine occupations, such as postal workers, sales assistants and care workers.

Although the proportion of parents from routine occupations, which commonly require low qualifications, has remained about 9 per cent, the proportion of parents from semi-routine occupations fell from 13 per cent in 2021-22 to just 9 per cent last year.

Aaron Reeves, professor of sociology at LSE, said this could be a delayed result of the “Covid effect” on lower-income students as well a reflection of structural changes in the economy.

“It might be driven by the changing dynamics within the British labour market, that there is just a growing share of households with children who are working in higher managerial and professional occupations.”

Separate Hesa figures show that the proportion of English students from the most disadvantaged areas has risen slightly in recent years to 22 per cent.

Although indices of deprivation are not the best measures for class at household level, Reeves said this could suggest that economic change is driving this.

He said the fact that these two metrics are pulling in different directions is evidence of how difficult it is for universities to improve their widening participation efforts.

“It’s...really important, but...not uncomplicated, to understand what’s going on in these statistics.”

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patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com