Professor Helen Poole added: “We are proud to be in the heart of Birmingham with a diverse student population, and this project will continue our commitment to ensuring we widen access for all, building a positive impact in the communities we serve.”

IntoUniversity has a proven track record of improving access to and attainment in higher education for students facing disadvantage, and currently supports over 50,000 young people each year at their 43 centres nationwide. 61% of students who attend IntoUniversity centres go on to progress to university, compared with 28% of students from similar backgrounds nationally.

Dr Rachel Carr, Chief Executive and Co-Founder of IntoUniversity, says: “We are delighted to be opening this new centre in East Birmingham, alongside our partners The University of Warwick and University College Birmingham. We thank our university partners for making this new centre possible.”

Birmingham is one of the twenty local authorities in the UK where residents are most likely to experience destitution (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2022). Notably, 43% of the city's population lives in the 10% most deprived areas nationally (Birmingham City Council, 2022).

Poverty significantly impacts educational attainment, with disadvantaged students falling behind their peers at every educational stage. In Birmingham, the educational attainment gap is stark; disadvantaged young people are almost 13.6 months behind their more advantaged peers by the end of secondary school (Education Policy Institute, 2022). Furthermore, there are vast disparities in higher education progression rates within the city, ranging from 92.8% in central Birmingham to just 10.3% in the east (Office for Students, 2023).