Poor boys are losing the university battle of the sexes

Something worrying is happening to university access. It’s not what opponents of higher tuition fees predicted, which is that the higher rates would put off poorer students, so it might not get as much pick-up. It might also get less pick-up because it concerns a group that it isn’t particularly fashionable to worry about, which is poor young men. A report today from the Independent Commission on Fees finds that poor young men are less likely to go to university than women from the same background – and this gender gap is widening.

The ICF, which was set up to examine the impact of charging students £9,000 a year, found a ‘growing gender gap amongst university entrants’. It is particularly worried about this gap in the case of the group of poorest students, in which girls leaving school are 48 per cent more likely to get into university than similarly disadvantaged boys, even though the numbers of students from this group have increased.