There are still under-represented groups who are struggling to access Higher Education (HE), including white, working-class males.<\/p>
Prior attainment is a key determinant of successful participation in HE.\u202f When we account for this, we see reductions in the gaps between the most and least advantaged groups.<\/p>
That is why we are refocusing the entire access and participation regime to drive up standards throughout the system \u2013 and we are asking universities to take a more direct role in doing this.<\/p>
We are asking universities to raise standards in schools and colleges, offer flexible and skills-related courses, tackle drop-out rates, and support students throughout university and graduation into meaningful employment.<\/p>
To increase aspiration and attainment a far greater focus needs to be placed on activities which benefit students, including summer schools, programmes of intervention in schools and targeted bursaries to assist with living costs.<\/p>
An investment of up to £75 million has been announced to create a National Scholarship Scheme which will support high achieving disadvantaged students to reach their full potential.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4756", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Brendan Clarke-Smith"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Bassetlaw"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Brendan Clarke-Smith"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2022-07-13", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2022-07-13T13:31:04.17Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "31"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Women and Equalities"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Women and Equalities"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2022-07-13", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Higher Education: Ethnic Groups"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will take steps with the Secretary of State for Education to help ensure that the proportion of white state-school educated students obtaining a place in higher education is raised to the same proportion as mixed heritage, Black, Asian and Chinese students.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1537", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mr Philip Hollobone"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Kettering"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Mr Philip Hollobone"} ], "uin" : "901085"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }