Children born in the summer are significantly less likely than winter-born babies to go to university, according to a new report which challenges the belief that summer babies will catch up with their peers by their teens.

The reason for the summer-birth disadvantage is that those children have to sit important exams up to 11 months earlier than their autumn or winter-born counterparts, the report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says.

It proposes a number of reforms to ensure that summer-born babies are no longer penalised because of an “unlucky birth draw”. Chief among these is the suggestion that all school test scores should be adapted to take account of students' birth month, right up to GCSE level.

The problems associated with summer babies have long been recognised by parents, teachers and children themselves and are the direct result of the administrative convenience demanded by local authorities and schools when admitting children into reception classes at the age of 5. But the issue has gained new prominence in the past two years, after the publication of a number of studies suggesting that the summer-birth disadvantage remains with children through life.

According to today's report, 37 per cent of girls and 29.6 per cent of boys born in September have started higher education by the age of 19. This compares with 35.2 per cent of girls and 28 per cent of boys born in August.

Fewer than 11 per cent of August-born girls enrolled at Oxbridge or another institution in the elite, research-intensive Russell group of universities by the age of 19, compared with 12.1 per cent of September girls. For boys the figures are 8.7 per cent and 9.5 per cent respectively.

“Given that a degree (particularly one from a high-status institution) often earns its holder a substantial wage premium, these differences suggest that children born at the end of the school year may not only face lower educational opportunities, but also lower lifetime earnings, simply because of the month in which they were born,” the report's authors, Claire Crawford, Lorraine Dearden and Costas Meghir, conclude. They add that at least 2,600 more children a year would have the potential to enter university if the Government were able to iron out the achievement discrepancies suffered by summer babies.

The Government has acknowledged the problems associated with birth month and last year ordered Sir Jim Rose, who is carrying out a review of the primary school curriculum, to consider “how we can design the curriculum to improve outcomes for summer-born children”.

Today's report discusses a number of potential solutions. One might be to test students at the end of each school year and to use these results to determine whether children should be allowed to progress to the next stage. The Conservative Party has already suggested that this could happen at the end of Key Stage 2, when most children are 11.

There are potential disadvantages with this approach, not least the risk of stigmatising children who are held back, which could demotivate them and delay their academic progress further. There is also the question of making sure that no children are held back wrongly and the administrative difficulty of delaying decisions on school transfer and progression until after end-of-year tests.

An alternative might be to allow children to start school at the age of 6 instead of 5 if they are not ready. This already happens in many other countries.

If this option of flexible school starting dates were to be implemented, the authors conclude that “full-time nursery provision would need to be offered as an alternative to full-time schooling”. This would be necessary to help poorer parents, who might otherwise be reluctant to delay entry because they are unable to make appropriate alternative childcare arrangements.

August's child is clever and bright - or some of them are

Mark Thompson (August 31, 1957): Director-General of the BBC

Stephen Fry (August 24, 1957): Actor, comedian and writer

Jim Naughtie (August 9, 1957): Presenter of the Today programme alongside John Humphrys and, until recently, Sue McGregor, who were also born in August

Antony Gormley (August 30, 1950): Artist best known for Angel of the North

Martin Amis (August 25, 1949): Author

Katharine Hamnett (August 16, 1947): Fashion designer

Jack Straw (August 3, 1946): Secretary of State for Justice

Rose Tremain (August 2, 1943): Whitbread Award-winning novelist

Dame Barbara Mills, QC, (August 10, 1940): Adjudicator for HM Revenue and Customs and formerly Director of Public Prosecutions and director of the Serious Fraud Office

Sir David King (August 12, 1939): Government Chief Scientist

Dame Antonia Byatt (August 24, 1936): Author of Possession

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