THE gap between poorer Cumbria students and their more affluent peers attending university has risen, figures show.

The Sutton Trust said the university access gap across England – which is as large now as it was 14 years ago – is evidence of "stubborn and ingrained inequalities" in the education system.

Data from the Department for Education shows that of 448 students in Cumbria who received free school meals at the age of 15, 47 (10.5 per cent) were at university in 2019-20 – down from 14.4 per cent the year before.

Of 4,711 other pupils in the area not on free school meals, 37.4 per cent were studying in higher education at the age of 19, which was also down from 37.7 per cent in 2018-19.

This meant that the progression rate gap between poorer pupils and non-disadvantaged students rose to 26.9 percentage points last year – up from 23.2 in 2018-19.

Across England, 26.6 per cent of pupils who received free school meals at age 15 were participating in higher education in 2019-20, compared to 45.7 per cent of those who did not receive meals.

At 19.1 percentage points, this gap is the widest it has been since 2005-06, and varies significantly throughout the country.