Jill Sherman in The Times highlights new Sutton Trust analysis on a North-South access divide

Britain’s top universities have been ordered to step up efforts to attract talented pupils from the northern regions and areas of low achievement.

Greg Clark, the cities and universities minister, has called on the Russell Group of universities to do much more to close the gap between those pupils who sail into the country’s most prestigious institutions and those who fail to get to university at all.

The drive to tackle the north-south divide comes after research by The Times and the Sutton Trust showed that all but one of the 20 councils that send the most children to Britain’s top universities are in London and the southeast. In contrast, the 20 that send the fewest children to the top third of universities are predominantly in the more deprived areas of the north and the Midlands.

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The Sutton Trust said that its data showed that the chances of getting to a great university were not just a matter of family background but also of where applicants had gone to school. “Improving social mobility requires a particular drive to improve results and widen access in the north, in coastal areas and other often neglected parts of the country,” said James Turner, the director of programmes at the trust.

Read her report here.

The Sutton Trust research is analysed in more detail in London benefits from attention as the regions languish which appeared with the same feature.

All but one of the 20 councils that send the most state-school children to the top universities in England are based in London or the south, according to the analysis by The Times and the Sutton Trust.

By contrast, the 20 authorities that send the fewest number to the top 30 universities are mainly in the north and the Midlands.

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“London has benefited from a lot of programmes and attention and we need that attention to spread across the country if young people are to improve their chances of getting a good degree,” said James Turner, Sutton Trust’s director of programmes.

“We’re working with leading universities to break down those barriers, but we need a co-ordinated effort which involves government, schools, businesses and other important players too.”

View The Times interactive graphic based on the Sutton Trust analysis here.

Read Lee Elliot Major’s article for Media FHE on the research here.

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