Poor teenagers less likely to go to uni than rich ones
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) wins the prize for this week's most obvious research finding, as it has discovered that poorer teenagers are less likely to go to university. Surely not.
According to their report, which looked at participation levels right the way down to individual council wards, the richest 20% of teenagers are six times more likely to enter higher education than the poorest 20%.
The inequalities between regions are also increasing: in London, the participation rate is on the up, making it now the highest participating English region. In contrast, the rate of participation in the North East was already low, and has not increased much over the period of the report, which covers 1994-2000.
Of course, this does allow for one of the government's favourite things - a league table - to be constructed, so here are the top and bottom ten parliamentary constituencies for sending people to university:
| Top 10 | ||
| Constituency | Region | % |
| Kensington & Chelsea | London | 69% |
| Cities of London & Westminster | London | 65% |
| Sheffield Hallam | Yorkshire/Humber | 62% |
| Brent North | London | 60% |
| Eastwood | Scotland | 59% |
| Richmond Park | London | 59% |
| Enfield Southgate | London | 55% |
| Finchley & Golders Green | London | 55% |
| Wimbledon | London | 55% |
| Western Isles | Scotland | 54% |
| Bottom 10 | ||
| Constituency | Region | % |
| Kingston upon Hull West & Hessle | Yorkshire/Humber | 13% |
| Thurrock | East of England | 13% |
| Dagenham | London | 12% |
| Salford | North West | 12% |
| Tyne Bridge | North East | 12% |
| Kingston upon Hull East | Yorkshire/Humber | 11% |
| Bristol South | South West | 10% |
| Leeds Central | Yorkshire/Humber | 10% |
| Nottingham North | East Midlands | 8% |
| Sheffield Brightside | Yorkshire/Humber | 8% |
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