Widening participation: progress continues, but is it enough?

The latest Department for Education statistics on widening participation offer a mixed picture. On the surface, access to higher education remains remarkably resilient. More than half of young people now enter higher education by the age of 25, and participation among disadvantaged groups continues to improve over the longer term. Yet beneath the headline figures lies a more fundamental question: are we still measuring the right thing?

The 2024/25 statistics show that 51.3% of the 2014/15 cohort had participated in higher education by age 25, a slight increase on the previous year and the highest level on record. Participation by age 20 stands at 48.9%, down marginally from the previous cohort but still above pre-pandemic levels.

For policymakers, these figures can reasonably be presented as evidence that widening participation has been broadly successful. Access has improved dramatically for disadvantaged pupils, with HE participation almost doubling since the early 2000s. However, the participation gap between disadvantaged and more advantaged pupils has not closed. The latest figure reveals a gap of 19.8 percentage points compared to around 18 in 2008/09.

But widening participation was never intended to be an end in itself. Its purpose was to improve social mobility, expand opportunity and strengthen the economy by helping more people develop higher-level skills. Increasingly, however, these aims appear to be diverging.

Participation is no longer the whole story

The latest statistics continue to measure success largely through participation rates. Yet participation tells us remarkably little about whether learners choose the right pathways, acquire the skills employers need or ultimately secure rewarding careers.

At the same time as participation has expanded, employers continue to report persistent skills shortages across engineering, digital technologies, health, construction and advanced manufacturing. Meanwhile, graduate underemployment remains stubbornly high, with many graduates working in roles that do not require degree-level qualifications.

In other words, England faces the unusual situation of having both graduate underutilisation and skills shortages at the same time. That suggests the problem is no longer simply one of access. It is one of alignment.

From widening participation to widening opportunity

The figures also raise a broader policy question. Should widening participation continue to be judged primarily by how many young people enter higher education? Or should it evolve into a wider measure of social mobility reflecting participation in advanced learning throughout life, as well as employment outcomes and broader economic advancement?

The future labour market will increasingly require people to retrain several times during their working lives. Skills acquired at 21 may be obsolete by 41. One of the more interesting messages from the latest statistics is that participation is 48.5% by age 30. With some groups (e.g. looked after children) much more likely to enter higher education later in life.

Level 4 and 5 learners are also much more likely to be older, illustrating that technical and sub-degree qualifications attract an older learner profile than traditional bachelor's degrees, although participation by age 30 has slipped slightly to 7.3%. The relatively low share of learners entering Level 4 and 5 reinforce what many have argued for years: England’s "missing middle" has lacked a strong higher technical educational offer.

This strengthens the case for policies such as the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, and flexible, modular learning. If government is serious about widening participation it needs to create a system that makes returning to higher education easier for adults. The statistics suggest that this remains an important, and currently under-developed, route into higher education and higher-level skills.

A new mission

Rather than asking simply how many young people attend university, policymakers should increasingly ask:

• Are people acquiring the skills local economies actually need?

• Are adults able to retrain throughout their careers?

• Are universities and colleges working together as a coherent tertiary system?

• Are employers investing in workforce development?

• Is education contributing to productivity and regional growth?

England has made genuine progress in opening the doors of higher education to more people. That achievement should not be underestimated.

But if widening participation is to remain relevant over the next decade, it must evolve from a policy about university access into a strategy for continuous learning and advancement. The challenge is no longer simply getting more people into higher education. It is building a tertiary education system that enables people to learn, reskill and progress throughout their working lives, while supplying the higher-level skills that a dynamic economy increasingly demands.