August-born children 'less-likely' to go to university

Children born towards the end of the school year are "significantly" less likely to go to university than those born near the beginning, research has found.

While 37 per cent of girls and 29.6 per cent of boys born in September have started higher education by the age of 19, only 35.2 per cent of girls and 28 per cent of boys born in August have started by the same age.

The research, published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies showed that August-born children were also much less likely to go to top universities like Oxford or Cambridge than their September-born counterparts.

A total of 10.9 per cent of August girls attend such institutions by aged 19 compared to 12.1 per cent of September girls, while the figures for boys are 8.7 per cent and 9.5 per cent respectively.

The report suggests that the differences could cause potentially damaging long-term consequences for summer-born children.

They could face lower educational opportunities and also possible lower earnings because of their birth month, the authors suggest.

Report author Claire Crawford said: "These findings underline the potentially damaging long-term education and labour market consequences faced by August-born children, simply because they were unlucky enough to be born at the end of the school year."