Study shows state-school students are underrepresented in top graduate schemes

The Institute of Student Employers (ISE) has reported that students who were educated in state schools are less represented in Britain’s top graduate schemes.

The study showed that from a recent survey of 138 employers, only 57% of graduates hired by companies had a state-school education in comparison to 91% across the student population.

Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) suggest that top-tier universities are taking a lower proportion of state-school pupils than other institutions across the country.

Additionally, it was revealed in the ISE survey that 12% of companies focused on Russell Group universities for recruitment.

The ISE report states: “Many of the differences in career outcomes between different groups of students can be explained by the overrepresentation of privately educated and other advantaged students at high-status institutions”.

Privately educated graduates are more represented by employers in key lucrative sectors: law, banking, professional, and financial services. 58% of employers said that they tailored their recruitment to institutions which their company had historic links with, and 17% focused on university rankings.

Despite this, improvements have been made to increase diversity amongst Britain’s top graduate schemes, but the ISE states that there is still more to be done.

Most employers in many sectors within the survey recognised that there is a big diversity problem and are taking corrective action to increase representations graduates from varying academic and social backgrounds.

Some companies have also started using name-blind or university-blind recruitment techniques and made conscious choices to advertise more at different universities across the country.