Babies born in the summer are at least 20 per cent less likely than those born in winter to go to university, research suggests.

An analysis of university admission by month of birth indicates that 10,000 young people each year fail to go to university because they were born late in the school year.

Bahram Bekhradnia, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said that although it had long been known that summer babies, who were the youngest in their class, tended to perform less well at school than winter babies it had long been assumed that the summer babies “caught up” with their peers by their teens.

Figures from the Higher Education Funding Council for England suggest that this is not the case. Boys born in August are 25 per cent less likely to go to university than those born in September. Girls born in August are 20 per cent less likely to attend than those born in September.

Mr Bekhradnia said: “There can be a 20 per cent age difference between a five-year-old and a six-year-old in the same class at school. The younger child may be far behind in developmental terms and may simply not know what is going on. This can have the effect of turning them off.”

When the disadvantages of birth month are combined with the performance of students by gender, the results are more startling. Girls born in September are 50 per cent more likely to attend university than boys born in August.

Mr Bekhradnia said that disadvantage caused by birth month was easily avoidable because it was the direct result of the “administrative convenience” demanded by local authorities and schools when admitting children into reception classes at age 5. The solution, he suggested, would be to make it easier for summer-born children to be held back a year if they were struggling to keep up with older children in their class — a practice used successfully in other countries.

Chris Saleh, of the Institute for Education, said that whereas summer babies of high ability tended to catch up with their peers, less able children often failed to gain parity. “Summer babies who are less able are often less mature and, as the years go by, they do less of the curriculum than other, older children in their class. That makes it harder and harder for them to catch up,” Ms Saleh said.

But she rejected the suggestion of allowing children to repeat a year of school. A better solution, she suggested, may be to give schools, families and local authorities more flexibility over when to admit children.

Seasonal births

Winter

Sir Philip Green businessman, born March 15, 1952
John Varley CEO of Barclays Bank, April 1, 1956
Gordon Brown, Prime Minister, February 20, 1951
Dame Anita Roddick Body Shop, October 23, 1942
Nicola Horlick City “Superwoman”, December 28, 1960
Alex Turner, Arctic Monkey, January 6 1986

Summer

Sir Menzies Campbell Lib Dem leader, May 22 1941
Geri Halliwell Spice Girl, August 6, 1972
Ronnie Biggs Great Train Robber, August 8, 1929

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