Around 60% of Gen Z are currently in or have attended university, with roughly 36–38% of 18-year-olds in the UK entering higher education as of 2024. While roughly 71–79% of Gen Z express plans to attend university, actual enrollment has declined compared to previous generations, with many favoring trade schools, apprenticeships, or direct-to-work paths.
Out of the UK's 2.8 million students, 63% are Gen Zs – rising to 79% if you include anyone aged 29 or under. Youth culture is alive and well on campus. But when, at native, we speak to marketers about Gen Z, they don't always consider Gen Z students to be an audience in their own right.
I always like to start from the macro perspective and take a look at scale – Gen Z represents about 20% of the UK population, so it's a sizeable chunk of the market for starters.
The higher education entry rate among UK 18-year-olds increased from 24.7% in 2006 to 30.7% in 2015 and peaked at 38.2% in 2021. It fell back to 36.4% in 2024. 49% of state school pupils from England had started higher education by age 25 in 2022/23. The rate among women was substantially higher than among men.
Along with being more diverse, Gen Z is also more educated than previous generations. This starts with having more educated parents. Pew Research found 44% of Gen Z living with a parent holding a bachelor's degree or higher in 2019, compared with just 33% of millennials in 2003.
In 2022, 75% of 25 to 29 year olds from higher professional backgrounds had a first or higher degree, compared with 29% of those from lower working class backgrounds.
Which ethnic group is the most educated in the UK?
pupils from the Chinese ethnic group had the highest average score out of all ethnic groups (65.5), followed by pupils from the Indian ethnic group (59.4)
As the average cost of college in the United States soars, more young people are being drawn to skilled trades. It's part of a career rethink among members of Gen Z, who have been called the “toolbelt generation.” Special correspondent Christopher Booker reports.
📚 The 10 Most Educated Countries in the World (2025) Based on tertiary education attainment among adults (ages 25–64) As of 2025, Canada leads the world in education, with 63% of its adult population holding a post-secondary qualification — the highest among OECD nations.
The income poverty rate varies substantially between ethnic groups: Bangladeshis (65%), Pakistanis (55%) and black Africans (45%) have the highest rates while black Caribbeans (30%), Indians (25%), white Other (25%) and white British (20%) have the lowest rates (see Figure 1).
65.1% pupils in England got a grade 4 (a 'pass') or above in GCSE English and maths. 88.6% of pupils from the Chinese ethnic group got a grade 4 or above – the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups. the next highest percentages were in the Indian (83.5%) and Asian 'other' (77.1%) ethnic groups.
According to the 2021 Census, 33.8% of English and Welsh residents aged 16 or above have a university degree (including certificates, diplomas, undergraduate and all postgraduate degrees). This is equal to about 16.4 million people in England and Wales with a university degree in 2021.
A higher percentage of black women — 9.7% to be exact — are enrolled in college than any other racial or gender group, including white men, white women, and Asian women. It's the first time in American history that black women are leading the way in education.
A Gallup poll conducted with the Walton Family Foundation (2023) found that, although 85% of Gen Z students recognize the importance of college, only 62% plan to pursue higher education (for comparison, at the same age, 74% of Millennials planned to attend college). Several potential forces may be driving this shift.
Institut Le Rosey has over 5,000 former students. It has educated generations of dynastic families, including members of the Hohenzollern, Cavendish, Rothschild, Koskull, Metternich, Borghese, Hohenlohe, Molson, Rockefeller, Niarchos, Safra, Du Pont and Radziwiłł families.
