A university education has long been seen as the gateway to upward social mobility for individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds, and as a way of reproducing social advantage for the better off. With the number of young people from the very highest socio-economic groups entering university in the UK has effectively been at saturation point for several decades. The expansion witnessed in participation rates over the last few decades has largely been achieved by a modest broadening of the base of the undergraduate population, in terms of both social class and ethnic diversity.