New report shows coastal and rural young people missing out on higher education

19 May 2025

Higher education opportunities are being increasingly restricted for the poorest young people from rural and coastal communities. The ‘Coast and Country: Access to higher education cold spots in England’ report released today shows that pupils from free school meal (FSM) backgrounds in rural areas are less likely to go on to higher education than their urban peers, while those from coastal communities are less likely to progress to university than young people living inland. Drawing on data released by the Department for Education, the report produced by the Ruskin Institute for Social Equity (RISE) also shows that:

There was a difference of 11 percentage points in the higher education participation rates for FSM learners in 2022/23 between coastal areas (at 21%) and inland areas (at 32%).
In predominantly urban areas the higher education participation rate in 2022/23 for learners from FSM backgrounds was 31%, while in predominantly rural areas the participation rate was 19%.
The higher education participation rate gap between predominantly urban areas and predominantly rural areas has increased from 9.64 percentage points in 2012/13 to 12.3 in 2022/23.
In England, the average higher education participation rate for learners from FSM backgrounds outside of London was only 23% in 2022/23, while the national rate that includes learners from London was 29%.

The report calls on the government to set regional targets for progression to higher education for those from FSM backgrounds as part of its devolution plans and to support new, collaborative initiatives to widen access to higher education focused on rural and coastal communities.

The lead author of the report, Professor Graeme Atherton, Head of RISE, states:

‘The aspirations of individuals and communities who live on the coast or in rural areas to progress are being held back. This will make the government’s missions on opportunity and growth hard to achieve, and a new focus on widening access to higher education is required.’