Families and schools have a substantial influence on whether young people go to university but no effect on how well students perform once they get there, according to the first study of genetic and environmental influences on higher education.

Researchers at King’s College London studied 3,000 pairs of identical and non-identical twins and 3,000 other people in the UK, in an effort to disentangle the factors that determine university enrolment and performance. Results were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Genetic factors account for 51 per cent of differences between school leavers in whether or not they go on to university. What the researchers call “shared environment” — mainly school and family background — accounts for 36 per cent, while “non-shared environment”, reflecting individual circumstances, contributes the remaining 13 per cent.