Education and skills

All ethnic minority groups in England are now, on average, more likely to go to university than their White British peers. This is the case even amongst groups who were previously under-represented in higher education, such as those of Black Caribbean ethnic origin, a relatively recent change. These differences also vary by socio-economic background, and in some cases are very large indeed. For example, Chinese pupils in the lowest socio-economic quintile group are, on average, more than 10 percentage points more likely to go to university than White British pupils in the highest socio-economic quintile group. By contrast, White British pupils in the lowest socio-economic quintile group have participation rates that are more than 10 percentage points lower than those observed for any other ethnic group. These are amongst the findings of research undertaken by IFS researchers, funded by the Departments of Education and Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), and published by BIS.

Like the NHS, day-to-day spending on schools was protected from cuts in the last parliament and the new Conservative government has announced protections for schools spending in this parliament too. However, rising costs mean that schools are likely to face real-terms cuts on spending per pupil for first time since the mid-1990s. Although the cuts are likely to be smaller than those seen across other areas of government spending, these will leave schools facing significant challenges over the next five years.

This presentation was delivered at the Work Pensions and Labour Economics (WPEG) conference 2015 at the University of Sheffield, on 28 July 2015.

IFS Director Paul Johnson shares his thoughts on how raising the minimum wage could affect the UK labour market in this piece published in the Times newspaper on 21 July 2015.

This presentation was given at the Office for Manpower Economics' Reward in the Public Sector Research Seminar on 10th July 2015.

This presentation was given at the Office for Manpower Economics' Reward in the Public Sector Research Seminar on 10th July 2015.

This presentation was delivered for a seminar at the College of Policing, Harrogate, on 19 May 2015. It was also given at the Home Office on 23 April 2015 and at the University of Sussex on 20 May 2015.

The Liberal Democrats' manifesto highlights a commitment to protect education spending per pupil in England for 2–19 year-olds in real terms. Labour and the Conservatives have also announced protections for education spending in England. In this Observation, we analyse the implications of these different protections for how schools and education spending will evolve over the next parliament.

This presentation was delivered at the launch of a report authored by IFS researchers, which examines the impact of programmes implemented by the Social Mobility Foundation.