Key findings

• • Between 1991 and 2011 there was an overall improvement in educational attainment, but minority ethnic groups experienced greater improvements compared with the White British group. In 2011 people from minority ethnic groups were more likely to have academic qualifications than White British people (17 and 24 per cent respectively had no qualifications).

• • The Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups experienced an increase in those with degree-level qualifications, by 27, 18 and 15 percentage points respectively, between 1991 and 2011.

• • Members of the Indian, Chinese and Black African groups in 2011 had higher educational attainment than other minority ethnic groups and the White British group.

• • In 2011, 60 per cent of the White Gypsy or Irish Traveller group had no qualifications. This was the highest proportion for any ethnic group, and was two-and-a-half times that of the White British group.

• • The Bangladeshi and Pakistani groups saw a 19- and 16-percentage point decrease respectively in those without any qualifications between 2001 and 2011.

• • Although the educational disadvantage of Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups compared to the White British group declined between 1991 and 2011, it was still present in 2011.

• • Nearly one in three women in the Pakistani or Bangladeshi groups had no qualifications compared with one in four White British women. However, Pakistani and Bangladeshi young people aged 16-24, both females and males, were considerably more qualified than their older counterparts, and more qualified than White British young people of the same age.

• • Over a third of people born outside of the UK had degree-level qualifications compared with a quarter of people born in the UK.

• • Migrants who arrived in the UK between 2001 and 2011 were better qualified than those who arrived in the UK in previous decades.

Introduction

Policymakers in Britain are concerned with education as it provides a pathway for the broader integration of immigrants and minority ethnic groups into economic, political and civil society. Education facilitates social mobility for all ethnic groups: higher educational attainment is associated with improved employment outcomes, such as avoiding unemployment and securing higher-level jobs and higher incomes (Heath and Cheung, 2006). Historically, minority ethnic groups in the UK have been disadvantaged in education compared with the White British group; however, over the last 20 years, the educational attainment of minority ethnic groups has increased.