A recently published report indicates that students from underprivileged backgrounds who attend a Sutton Trust summer school program are significantly more likely than their peers to attend a leading university.

Admission to Russell Group universities among those who attended the program is 76%, compared with 55% of those with a similar academic and social background who did not apply.

The report, compiled by Dr Tony Hoare and Rosanna Mann of the University of Bristol, looked at the acceptance rate of university applicants who had attended the Sutton Trust summer schools at Nottingham, Cambridge, Bristol, Oxford and St. Andrews in 2008 and 2009. They compared it with 30,000 other students in different control groups.

The findings show that 23% of the summer school students went on to attend one of the host universities, compared with 13% of those who were unsuccessful in getting a place on the program.

The Sutton Trust summer school program, founded in 1997 by Sir Peter Lampl to increase social mobility and educational opportunities for disadvantaged students, has given 10,000 academically able young people the chance to attend a program at one of Britain’s leading universities.

Its aim is to give 17-and 18 year-old university applicants from non-privileged backgrounds the opportunity to experience life as a student. They attend lectures, supervisions and social activities and are mentored by a student volunteer.

The scheme is currently oversubscribed by a factor of seven to one.

Sutton Trust chairman Sir Peter Lampl said: "Such has been the success of our summer school scheme over the last 15 years that this year we have expanded it to three more universities - Durham, Imperial College and UCL.”

The report stated that 91% of those who attended the summer schools in 2008 and 2009 were the first in their family to go university. 99% had attained 5A* or more at GCSE. As well as academic criteria, students who apply must also meet two other requirements: coming from an underperforming school and qualifying for the Education Maintenance Allowance.

The study found that the summer schools reduced the disadvantage of coming from a family with no university education.

The report concluded: “Not only does the summer school experience encourage all attendees to target the more elite universities, but what is particularly encouraging is that they reduce, sometimes to vanishing point, the greater reluctance of the more under-privileged groups to do so.”