Sutton Trust Chief Executive, Lee Elliot Major, was quoted in article in the Sunday Times on the under-performance of white working class. 

Students from ethnic minority backgrounds make up two-thirds of the intake at some English universities, new official figures reveal.

The data, from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, shows white British students are in a minority at about one in 10 institutions across the country. On some courses, such as business, pharmacy and science-related degrees, more than 70% of students are from ethnic minorities.

Separate research by Oxford University for the Sutton Trust charity found just 29% of white working-class boys from deprived neighbourhoods in England went on to take A-levels or AS-levels in sixth form. Dr Lee Elliot Major, chief executive of the Sutton Trust, called on universities to do more to attract white British students, particularly those from poorer backgrounds.

“A lot of these children . . . see education and university education in particular as ‘not for the likes of me’,” he said. “Universities need to do much more to work with some of the coastal towns and some of the old mining villages where we have that demographic . . . .

“We would definitely support more targeting of white working-class areas.”

Read the full article here.(£)

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