Fewer minority pupils offered prestige places

White pupils and those from private schools are more likely to be admitted to top universities than ethnic minority applicants and people from state schools even if they have the same A-levels, research has found.

A study of 49,000 applications from 1996 to 2006 found the problem was partly due to people from state school backgrounds not applying to the elite Russell Group universities.

But according to Vikki Boliver, a lecturer at Durham University’s School of Applied Social Science, applicants from black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds were shown to be significantly less likely than white applicants to be offered places, even with the same results.

Dr Boliver said: “I think we have to look into this more deeply. This is something that cannot be ignored. We just know there is a problem, we need to know the causes.”

The findings were being presented to a Higher Education Academy conference yesterday.