BUT the overall pattern hides significant inequalities by subject & university type. Arts subjects eg music & drama, at elite institutions, eg the Russell Group, have very high proportions of middle class origin & privately educated students, and low levels of working class origin students

The academic literature suggests Higher Education is a really crucial part of why the creative workforce is so unequal. Yet superficially, whether we look at class origins of students or the type of school they went to, creative HE courses seem to be doing okay. There's a big BUT coming next>