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Twice as many students get a letter this year

This year, 20,000 students received a letter from a university student who shares their background, double the number reached in 2025.

Twice as many letters

In October 2026, EduBoost sent letters to 20,000 Year 13 students at state-funded schools across England.

Each letter was written by a student at King’s College London from a similar background, encouraging the recipient to aim high in their university applications.

The students who receive a letter have good grades but have been identified as being less likely to apply to a selective university.

That matters because attending a selective university is linked to better-paid careers and routes into the professions, yet disadvantaged students are less likely to apply than better-off peers with the same grades.

The re-run follows the 2025 scale-up, when we sent 10,000 letters as part of a collaboration with King’s College London and TASO, backed by the Department for Education.

Why letters work

In our original randomised controlled trial, 11.4% of students who received two letters went on to a selective university (i.e. one of those with the highest entry requirements), compared with 8.5% of those who received none. That is about a third more students.

Earlier research found that meeting a role model in person could raise interest in university, but those sessions are hard to run at scale. A letter carries the same message for a fraction of the cost, so it can reach thousands of students at once.

Read more about the original trial.

What happens next

We will track where this year’s students go on to study to understand the ongoing impact of the letters.

Dr Eliza Kozman, EduBoost co-founder said:

“Doubling to 20,000 letters means twice as many students hear from someone who has walked the same path. When we know something works, our job is to get it to as many young people as possible.

“A letter costs a fraction of an in-person visit, yet it can change where a student applies. That’s what lets us reach 20,000 students in a single year.

“That’s why we’re establishing EduBoost as a charity: to keep finding, testing and scaling ideas that improve outcomes for disadvantaged and under-represented students.”

Want to support our next steps? Get in touch.