GYPSY and traveller students are the least likely to go to university, a report has revealed.

The report by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) highlighted how “stark” attainment gaps and educational exclusion make it harder for Gypsy, Roma and traveller (GRT) students to enter higher education.

The study found that GRT pupils have the worst educational outcomes of all ethnicities, with 6.3 per cent of Gypsy or Roma and 3.8 per cent of Irish traveller students accessing higher education.

There were only 30 students from GRT backgrounds registered at Russell Group universities in 2020/21, and 660 students in total.

In comparison, 37 per cent of UK 18-year-olds entered higher education in 2020.

Emerita professor of higher education at the Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research at the University of Sussex, Louise Morley, highlighted the issues behind the statistics.

“The story of GRT communities is one of spatial segregation, symbolic and actual ghettoisation, and the racialisation of poverty and social exclusion,” she said.

HEPI policy manager Laura Brassington said it was “scarcely believable” that GRT pupils faced “so many barriers” when trying to access education, and that it was “tragic” that many avoided identifying their ethnicity because of racial prejudice.

“Education institutions could commit to change this situation by doing more to recognise the challenges and signing the pledge to tackle them, while policymakers should improve data collection and find the modest sum of money that could make a huge difference,” she added.

A Romany Gypsy told researchers that GRT communities’ lives were “so bad in every area”, with a 2022 survey finding that 45 per cent of the British public held negative views of Gypsy, Roma and traveller people.

The report highlighted how GRT pupils have some of the lowest attendance rates and highest rates of permanent exclusion from schools.

In 2020/21, just 9.1 per cent of Gypsy/Roma pupils and 21.1 per cent of Irish traveller pupils achieved a grade five “strong pass” in GCSE English or maths, compared with a national England average of 51.9 per cent.

The report said there was a “widespread lack of understanding of the cultural barriers GRT communities face in mainstream education”, with traveller communities experiencing higher rates of bereavement through both suicide and traumatic accidental death than the general population.