Highly-selective universities need to recruit more mature students if they expect to reach targets for widening participation, according to England¡¯s regulator.

An analysis of university access and participation plans by the Office for Students suggests that the gap in entry rates between the richest and poorest to the most selective universities should nearly halve by 2024-25.

Currently the entry rate to the most selective universities is 6.2:1 but the new plans mean this be reduced to 3.7:1, OfS analysis says. This would mean about 6,500 extra students from the most disadvantaged areas attending these universities each year.

The new plans have been set so that universities can align themselves with the ¡°ambitious¡± targets set by the regulator in 2018, which state that the gap in entry rates between the most and least advantaged to the most selective universities must be eradicated by 2038.

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However, at the current rate of progress, more interventions to raise mature learners¡¯ participation rates would be needed to hit this target and the analysis showed that ¡°relatively few¡± universities had set ambitions for improving access for mature students.

According to Chris Millward, director of fair access and participation at the OfS, one barrier to making progress was that there was ¡°such a focus on a narrow funnel of 18- or 19-year-olds into university¡±, particularly as that population has been shrinking in recent years.

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¡°If universities try to make progress on access just by competing for that group, it will be really challenging. If they are willing to open different routes at different points of life, then [hitting targets] will be much more possible,¡± he said.

Mature students have been in steady decline since tuition fees were increased in 2012. Mr Millward admitted there were other issues at play but that universities could turn their huge recruitment machines, as well as their campus support, towards this demographic. Part-time learners and those with flexible needs needed particular support, he said.

Mr Millward added that high-tariff universities were not the only ones that would have to up their game, but because they currently have the largest entry gaps, they would have to take the most radical action. For example, the University of Oxford has made plans to reduce the entry gap between the richest and poorest students from 15:1 to 8:1 and Durham University from 10:1 to 3:1.

Overall, the new targets should reduce the gap in dropout rates between students from the most and least represented groups from 4.6 to 2.9 percentage points.

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Mr Millward said that he was ¡°confident¡± universities would hit the 2024-25 targets. ¡°We have seen a real step-change in ambition [this year], not only in the outcomes providers are striving for, but in their commitment to continuously improving the ways they work towards those outcomes,¡± he said.

However, the OfS would be closely monitoring them and if they don¡¯t appear to be on the right track the regulator would intervene to realign their strategies. If this didn¡¯t work the OfS had the power to ¡°apply conditions of registration and, ultimately, fines¡±, he said.

anna.mckie@timeshighereducation.com