A new study has shown that white British pupils are the ethnic group least likely to go to university.

The analysis from the institute for Fiscal Studies showed that, on average, white Britons were the group most likely to stay away from university, while young people from Chinese and Indian backgrounds were the most likely to attend.

The study noted that the proportion of young people from an ethnic minority background going to university is “very high on average.” But what is causing so many white youngsters to decide against university?

Some may feel that financial concerns may be the cause of it, so the study looked into social background as well as ethnicity. It found that white children from the poorest families were least likely to go to university, offering some statistics to support the notion of money being behind the choices made by young people.

However, the findings also showed that the poorest Chinese pupils are more likely to go to university than the richest of white pupils. The notion of economic matters preventing university attendance was further questioned by the fact that almost as high a proportion of the poorest Indian youngsters went to university as the wealthiest white British pupils.

This led the report’s authors, Claire Crawford and Ellen Greaves, to say that there must be “other factors that are more common amongst ethnic minority families than amongst white British families.”

With black African, black Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi youngsters also more likely to go to university than their white British peers, could there be a cultural or societal reason?

Here are the university entry rates by ethnic group (including figures for the poorest families in each group):

Poorest Average

White British 12.8 32.6

Black African 53.1 56.6

Black Caribbean 29.9 37.4

Indian 53.3 67.4

Pakistani 36.4 44.7

Bangladeshi 45.3 48.8

Chinese 65.5 75.7