A social mobility charity says top professions in the UK are still unduly dominated by people who have gone through private schools and Oxford and Cambridge universities.

Britons who went to private school are still preserving their positions at the top of influential professions – despite the fact that just 7 per cent of the general population are privately educated.

And in some professions, you’re now more likely to get your foot in the door if you attended a fee-paying school than five years ago, a Sutton Trust and Social Mobility Commission report finds.

It might not be a huge surprise that the upper ranks of the judiciary, the diplomatic service, the armed forces and public bodies are stuffed by a disproportionate number of former public-school pupils.

But it might raise an eyebrow that today's pop stars are more likely to have gone to private school than university vice-chancellors - 20% compared with 16%.

Read more at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-48745333

The chances of carving out a successful sporting career are more likely in some sports for those who went to an independent school too, a new report says

Elitist Britain 2019 looked at more than 5,000 people in the country's top professions and their educational background and concluded that "a lucky few" were given the most opportunities.

Cricket is one of the top 10 professions for independent school attendance, behind the likes of Cabinet members, military top brass and those sitting in the House of Lords - 43% of men and 35% of women playing international cricket for England went to private school.

Some 37% of male British rugby union internationals attended fee-paying schools, and about one in three Olympic medallists.

More than half (52%) of medal-winning rowers in 2016 attended fee-paying schools in 2016, along with 50% of the winning women's hockey team.

The report also cites figures showing that almost half (46%) of national schools competitions are won by independent schools, "despite 86% of competing schools coming from the state sector".

Read more at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/48745093