- Maddy Godin is a policy adviser at the Russell Group.
Despite a flurry of announcements for the higher education sector in the first half of 2025, much remains unknown about what is to come in this summer’s promised higher education reform plans. However, it is a pretty safe bet that opportunity and access will feature prominently. The Government has put ‘breaking down barriers to opportunity’ as one of its key missions for this Parliament, and higher education remains a core driver of social mobility.
Data consistently show that higher education qualifications are clearly and unambiguously associated with increased earnings and employment prospects. Research from the Sutton Trust found that attending a Russell Group university narrows the existing gap between state school students eligible for school meals and their privately educated peers in the likelihood of becoming a top earner.
At the same time, deeply entrenched inequalities prevail, as the UPP Foundation inquiry into widening participation highlights. The stark findings in its recent report included the difference in progression to higher education across the country: 71.6% of 18-year-olds in Battersea, compared to just 11.1% in Barrow-in-Furness. The Government is right to be looking at ways to address this striking imbalance, and universities are ready to be even more ambitious to reach more young people.
It is undoubtedly a huge challenge – both the task itself, given these inequalities are largely set at primary school and are already entrenched by the time it comes to post-16 options; and the wider context, given the university sector’s own financial challenges.
But good progress is being made. The number of young people from the most underrepresented backgrounds studying at Russell Group universities has seen a 56% increase since 2019. The number of Black placed applicants has increased by 62% in the same period. However, there is a mixed picture across the different measures of disadvantage – not helped by a cost-of-living crisis hot on the heels of the pandemic, both of which are still having an impact.
In this context, the Russell Group has today published a new paper, Building Opportunity For All. This sets out just some of the ambitious work our universities are already doing alongside new commitments they’ve made to going further. These commitments include expanding participation in regional partnerships, committing to a tailored support package for care leavers and care-experienced students, improving transparency around contextual admissions, and supporting the new TASO Evaluation Library to track the impact of activity.
These new collective commitments build on the work already detailed in universities’ access plans. These are being supported by an investment of more than £250m a year across the Russell Group.
Widening access is not a solo endeavour, which is why many of our ambitions involve making the most of partnerships with others inside and outside higher education. Combining ambitions and resources with others means our universities can go even further. Russell Group universities already spend millions of pounds a year on third sector partnerships, enabling us to provide almost 100,000 young people across the UK with practical support in achieving their university ambitions – from tutoring to advice on completing university applications.
Across the UK, universities are thinking creatively about what participation in higher education means for different people and how we can open up our campuses and opportunities to everyone. At the University of Bristol, partnership working not only helps young people gain a place at the University but also improves community engagement more broadly. The university has two micro-campuses located in areas of the city with the lowest higher education participation rates. Since 2020, the Barton Hill campus has worked with over 60 partners annually and welcomes 160+ users each week as a hub for research, teaching and outreach. Meanwhile, the new Hartcliffe campus is co-developing a micro-qualification with local colleges, employers and community groups to create new routes into work and study.
Our partnerships with further education are also developing more flexible learning pathways to raise attainment. The University of Glasgow, for example, runs Higher National Certificate (HNC) Articulation Programmes, developed with eight West of Scotland colleges. These enable eligible students – care-experienced individuals, estranged students, carers and those with refugee or asylum seeker status – to progress directly into Year 2 of some undergraduate degrees. Integrating college-based HNC study with university-led sessions and full access to campus resources fosters academic readiness and a sense of belonging, helping participants progress further in their educational journeys.
Opportunity is a shared challenge, and the Government needs to be our partner on this. We expect the Department for Education – quite rightly – to put opportunity as a central pillar of higher education reform. Our universities are already responding by increasing their ambition and being creative in their thinking. For example, the care leaver support packages our universities are implementing encompass everything from assistance applying to university and finding accommodation, to providing kitchenware, luggage, vouchers and gym memberships to help with a smooth transition and settling into university life.
But we can’t solve everything alone. We have long been calling on successive governments to improve student maintenance to remove financial barriers. Universities are doing what they can to support students. Over 60% of Russell Group universities’ £250m annual investment in access goes on direct financial support for students who need it the most. However, while significant, this is the context of the poorest students in 2025/26 being entitled to borrow around £1,125 (10%) less in real terms towards their living costs than in 2020.
It is also challenging to narrow equality gaps that have been growing since childhood. It’s vital that the Government’s opportunity mission considers the whole lifecycle of a student’s journey, from early years to post-16 education and beyond. Universities are ready and willing to be a vital part of the picture of improving opportunity, but they are still just one element. If inequalities are addressed at a young age, it will become easier to ensure access to university for everyone – not only helping students achieve their individual ambitions, but also bringing greater rewards for the government’s skills and workforce ambitions.