UK state school pupils for US Ivy League

A project helping disadvantaged UK pupils go to US universities has seen undergraduates accepted for courses starting in September 2016 at all of the prestigious Ivy League colleges.

Between them, the 66 state-school pupils will receive scholarships worth $17m (£12m) from US universities.

The numbers of UK students in US universities has risen each year since tuition fees rose in England in 2012.

US ambassador Matthew Barzun praised the value of such “interconnectedness”.

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But the project run by the Sutton Trust education charity wants these international opportunities to be available to poorer students and those from families where no one has previously gone to university.

Of those who will be starting in US universities this autumn, the Sutton Trust says, 83% will be the first generation in their family to go to university.

Sir Peter Lampl, founder of the Sutton Trust, said the scholarships meant that many of these students could graduate without any debts.

And he hoped more young people in the UK would “realise that a university education in America is well within their grasp”.

J Jeffry Louis, chairman of the US-UK Fulbright Commission, which supports the scheme, said: “This remarkable achievement demonstrates that American universities value the diverse talent, ambition and academic potential of the most deserving British state school students.

“Our special educational relationship crosses the Atlantic in both directions.”

An additional summer school project run by the Sutton Trust will take 150 state-school students, selected from 1,200 applicants, to visit US universities.

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