University Aspirations 2018

The Sutton Trust 

The proportion of young people who think it’s important to go to university when they are old enough has fallen steadily over the past six years, according to new Ipsos MORI polling of young people published by the Sutton Trust. Three-quarters of surveyed young people (75%) thought it was important to go to university to get on in life, down from a high of 86% in 2013 and 78% in 2017. A similar proportion felt that having connections was crucial, with 77% saying that ‘knowing the right people’ was important for success in life. In terms of concerns and anxieties about higher education, nearly half (46%) of young people likely to go to university are worried about the cost of higher education, a concern that is particularly pronounced among young people from the least affluent families (58% compared with 41% in ‘high affluence’ households).

The findings are available here.