THE gap between Barnsley’s most and least disadvantaged people going to university grew last year, the latest figures have revealed.

New Department for Education figures show 16.3 per cent of year 11 pupils in the 2022/23 academic year who were eligible for free school meals when they were 15 in Barnsley went on to enrol in higher education by the time they were 19.

This more than doubled for pupils not eligible for free school meals, with 37.7 per cent progressing to higher education.

It means the gap between pupils eligible for free school meals and their peers has grown to 21.4 percentage points.

Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said we are ‘sliding backwards’ as a society in the post-pandemic era.

He added: “Record-level participation gaps between free school meal pupils and their more privileged peers are nothing short of a societal failure.

“The cherished principle that anyone, regardless of their background, can study for a degree is becoming a distant dream.

“These statistics don’t lie – talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not.

“We are in danger of failing a whole generation.”