BOLTON’s sixth formers are just as likely to attend top universities as the average borough in the country.

But five boroughs in Greater Manchester outperformed Bolton with Trafford sending more than double the proportion of their state-school sixth formers to Russell Group universities.

According to Department for Education figures, 12 per cent of the borough’s state-school sixth formers end up at Russell Group universities – level with the national average.

That is higher than the neighbouring borough of Bury which sent ten per cent of its state-school key stage five pupils to Russell Group universities as did Rochdale.

The figures, compiled by the Reach data unit, show that in Manchester, 16 percent of state-school sixth formers end up at Russell Group universities.

As well as Manchester, four other boroughs in Greater Manchester scored higher than Bolton.

These were Stockport with 13 per cent, Wigan and Oldham with 15 per cent and Trafford with 29 per cent.

At five per cent, Salford has the lowest rate in Greater Manchester for getting state-school key stage five pupils into Russell Group universities.

The Russell Group is made up of 24 research-intensive universities that are generally considered to be world-class higher education institutions in the country.

The group includes Oxford and Cambridge universities as well as the University of Manchester, University of Liverpool and University of Sheffield.

Mark Burgoyne, deputy principal at Bolton College said that sending students to any university is already an achievement in itself and noted the benefits of studying at non-Russell Group universities.

He said: “We ordinarily try to progress our learners to university and not just the University of Bolton. Progressing learning is one of the key outcomes that all organisations have.

“If our learners are progressing to university then that’s a major job we will have done well. If it’s Russell Group, then that’s nice to have but we don’t use it as a key performance indicator.”

He said that Russell Group universities do not offer the same “hands-on” programmes that some learners prefer.

The further education college, which is now part of the University of Bolton group, offers vocational programmes with pathways for its learners to progress to higher education.

He said: “Part of the myth that many organisations need to bust is that young learners can get through to higher education doing vocational programmes.”

The data, published this month, relates to students who went on to university in 2016-17.