Blog3 February 2026
Expertise in approaches to widening access to higher education is at an all-time high. Heads of widening access in universities, their teams and a range of specialist organisations have led the charge. But the structural circumstances and some of the rhetorical vibes about widening access are alas at a low ebb.
Clearly, there is more need than ever for a sophisticated and active approach to widening access. UPP Foundation’s Inquiry 2025: ‘Towards a new mission for widening participation’ demonstrated that there are some worryingly persistent socioeconomic gaps in accessing higher education. The report contextualised statistics from the Office for Students (OfS) which show that the growth in the number of students accessing higher education from the most deprived groups is at best erratic.
Earning and learning?
Soon-to-be leavers from inner-city comprehensive schools, like my son and his friends, often say that they do not want to go to university because of the cost. Many want an apprenticeship, being steeped in the loud government (past and present) rhetoric about the benefits of ‘earning and learning’. But these young people are gradually waking up to the fact that apprenticeships are not so easy to secure.
The government has recently reported that just over 60,000 people started level 6 and 7 apprenticeships in the 2024/2025 academic year. Almost 10 times more people started undergraduate degrees that year. The Sutton Trust has analysed the mismatch between the supply of, and the demand for apprenticeships, especially among disadvantaged students.
While many apprenticeships are listed on the UK higher education application system run by UCAS, the sheer range of types and providers means that applying for apprenticeships is arguably less straightforward than applying for university.
Apprenticeships are great, but they are not available at the scale and quality required, and are also hard to track down; we should be wary of putting young people off applying to university. No one wants to fuel one of the saddest growing statistics in the UK – the rising number of 18-to-25-year-olds not in education, employment or training (NEETs).
The value of higher education
Even the university sector itself does not always make the benefits of higher education clear. According to a recent article in the Guardian, Professor Shitij Kapur, Vice-Chancellor of King’s College London, a UK university degree is no longer a ‘passport to social mobility’. In the same week, we learn that a Cambridge University college is planning to target a group of elite private schools for student recruitment, albeit for specific subjects, following the university’s decision to scrap its state school targets in line with OfS guidance.
The detail of exactly how disadvantaged students can best be served and how fairness in university admissions can be achieved will always be up for debate. But if there is a steady drumbeat of negativity about higher education enrolment and the benefits (or lack of benefits) for the most deprived, it will add another barrier to improving access and participation.
That drumbeat includes regular sets of analysis and media pieces on the decline of the graduate premium – the access to good jobs and higher salaries that university attendance is supposed to unlock. We do need to keep an eye on this. But according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development report, Education at a Glance, the bigger picture shows that university attendance is consistently beneficial, on average, to individuals, communities and nations in terms of economic outcomes, health, happiness, civic engagement and life expectancy.
This was also reinforced in TASO’s 2023 report, ‘The value of higher education’ which found that higher education is linked to clear economic benefits, as well as increased social and geographical mobility, and measures linked to wellbeing.
Practical support
TASO’s aim is to eliminate equality gaps in higher education, and it provides resources for the higher education sector to make evidence-informed decisions about effective interventions.
The UPP Foundation also has a history of supporting practical projects that address higher education access gaps. A notable current example is our support, as part of a coalition of funders, for a university-led school tutoring scheme aimed at raising attainment such that progression to university becomes a realistic goal for wider groups of young people. Under the leadership of Lee Elliott Major, Professor of Social Mobility at the University of Exeter, the programme is expanding from its base at the University of Exeter to a range of other universities this year.
Some of the ideas in the UPP Foundation report on widening access have featured in recent government policy. The 2025 autumn white paper on post-16 education and skills, for example, confirmed a commitment to make a grant available to some of the most disadvantaged students. We still need to see more of these practical policies to back up the government’s warm words about widening access to higher education.
Continuing to push for fair access and participation
In 2026, there will be changes at the top of the OfS that could impact widening access. The OfS CEO, Susan Lapworth, will step down in April 2026 and the organisation is already in the process of recruiting a new Director of Fair Access and Participation.
Our new year’s resolution for 2026 must be to remain positive about universities, collaborate on widening access initiatives, and make sure that we do not discourage people from participating in higher education. Of course, there are no actual jobs to deliver a narrowing of access to universities, but there is quite a lot of noise that could amount to the same thing.
Attending university remains an excellent life choice. There are other good ways to learn, train and get on, but let’s keep flying the flag for universities for all.
To stay in touch with the UPP Foundation, sign up via upp-foundation.org.