White boys the ONLY group to see fall in places at university

More students are winning university places in every demographic of the UK – except for white males.

Figures show that the number of white men getting on to degree courses has fallen almost ten per cent compared to 2014. 

In contrast, the number of Asian men securing places has risen by 26 per cent, and Asian women 39 per cent.

This year, a record number of UK candidates secured a place within a month of A-level results day, with 448,080 students scheduled to start degree courses this autumn, up from 441,720 last year.

But the number of white males has fallen from 127,330 in 2020 to 127,250 this year – just the latest evidence of a long-term decline.

The alarming statistics will renew fears that white working-class men are being left behind in the race to obtain the qualifications usually needed to get a good job, and that the Government’s ‘levelling-up agenda’ is floundering.

In a report this year, MPs found white children on free school meals – and boys in particular – persistently underperform at school compared with other ethnic groups.

As a result, just 13 per cent of white working-class boys go on to higher education. The Education Select Committee’s report warned these children had been failed by decades of neglect.

It said that universities were failing to set goals to boost the numbers of white working-class students and, most controversially, that the increasing use of the term ‘white privilege’ in debates about inequality could be divisive.