Abstract:

Background:
Ambitious targets for widening participation efforts are futile if there remains educational attainment gaps and non-continuation in university students from first generation and lower income backgrounds. The 2025 UPP Foundation’s widening participation inquiry highlights the importance of focus on measures that not only help with ‘getting in’ to university, but also ‘getting on’ and getting out’. The UK Institute for Fiscal Studies identifies clear socio-economic differences in drop-out, degree completion and degree class. Students from lower socioeconomic (lower-SES) backgrounds on average report lower levels of engagement, wellbeing, and academic achievement than peers from higher SES backgrounds.

Methods:
One-to-one consultation, small group discussions and anonymous drop-box feedback gave students from lower-SES backgrounds and academic staff, the opportunity to describe barriers and enablers to students from lower SES backgrounds ‘getting on’ and ‘getting out’ once registered on a university course. Information was gathered between October 2024 and July 2025 at a Global Top 100 University (QS World University Rankings) in the UK and recommendations for practice were made.

Results:
Differences in engagement, drop-out, degree completion and degree class were recognised, and largely associated with arriving at university with very different levels of human capital. This lack of capital was described as having a lack of prior relevant knowledge, skills, experiences, networks and connections, certain social and personality attributes, and poor individual or family health status. Added to this were specific barriers to progression, such as discrimination and stereotypes, and additional challenges of intersectionality (ethnicity, disability, gender, caregiving roles), all impacting on student wellbeing. Students perceived themselves to have lower levels of agency compared to higher SES peers and commonly perceived their situations as ‘precarious’ impacting on performance and decision-making around engagement and continuation. Recommendations for institutions include providing financial aid (such as scholarships, bursaries, grants to support childcare, travel and study materials), paid internships, targeted support services (such as support for financial literacy), additional tutoring, academic and peer mentoring, peer support networks, and counselling services. Creating an accessible, welcoming and inclusive learning environment was perceived to be vital.

Conclusion:
To remain a world-leading sector, UK Higher Education organisations must:
(a) recognise the educational attainment gap and risk of non-continuation for university students from first generation and lower income backgrounds, and
(b) make every effort to improve social mobility by taking actions that facilitate engagement and full participation in university life under conditions of equality.

Keywords:

Education, attainment, retention, equality, student experience.