Number of poor students dropping out of university at highest level in five years

The number of poor students who drop out of university before finishing their degree is at its highest in five years, the latest figures show. 

It comes amid a multi-million pound drive to recruit students from poorer backgrounds - with universities spending a total of £725.2 million on access initiatives in the past academic year alone. 

Russell Group universities said that over the past five years, they have almost doubled the their funding for scholarships, fee waivers, bursaries and outreach activities aimed at the most disadvantaged.

But despite the vast funds that have been poured into boosting access in higher education, a report, published on Thursday by the Office for Fair Access (Offa), concluded that: "while more disadvantaged young people are in higher education than ever before, the numbers of those students leaving before completing their studies has risen for the second year in a row."

A number of elite universities have taken to lowering their A level grade offers to students from poor backgrounds, in an attempt to encourage them to apply. 

John Howson, a visiting professor of education at Oxford Brookes University, said that the figures are "very worrying", and warned that universities must not treat access as a mere "numbers exercise". 

He said that there is a danger with "enticing" disadvantaged students through lower grade offers, if they are not going to provide ongoing support for them once they begin their courses. 

"Clearly if you are going to lower the grades then you need to monitor whether those are the people who will drop out quickly, and reevaluate whether you need to provide extra courses over the summer," he said. 

"You need to make sure if you are offering a lower grades, you need to [support students] to make that transition."

Official data shows that in 2014/15, 8.8 per cent of young, full-time disadvantaged undergraduates do not continue in higher education beyond their first year, up from 8.2 per cent the year before, and the highest level since 2009/10.

In comparison, average drop-out rate among students in England was 6.5 per cent in 2014/15, which dropped to below 5 per cent of those from the richest backgrounds.

"The gap between the non-continuation rates of the most advantaged and most disadvantaged students has widened in the past year," the report says.

It adds: "The significance of this for students is huge. Higher education can be a transformational experience that opens doors to rewarding careers and social mobility, but this is only the case if students achieve successful outcomes."

The report, titled Outcomes of access agreement monitoring for 2015-16,  also shows that a young person's chances of gaining at least a 2:1 depend significantly on their ethnic background.

Offa director Les Ebdon said it was a "disgrace" that a student's degree classification should be linked to their ethnicity. "I think it's an absolute disgrace that the class of degree that you get should depend on your ethnicity," he told a Buckingham University conference on higher education.

He later said: "It's not just about getting in, it's about getting on. I am concerned that universities are doing enough to support students from different backgrounds when they get into university."

The report looks at the progress universities and colleges have made in widening participation in higher education - encouraging more disadvantaged young people to study for a degree - against the commitments and targets institutions made in their 2015/16 "access agreements".

Institutions wishing to charge higher tuition fees, up to a maximum of £9,250, must sign an "access agreement" with Offa.