RICH kids are 10 times more likely to take a place at a top university tomorrow as students across England prepare to discover their A-Level results. 

The Sutton Trust’s fees commission found an “unacceptably large” gap between the number of students even applying for university from rich and poor backgrounds. 

Application rates from all 18 and 19-year-olds have recovered after a crash when the Con-Dems trebled tuition fees in 2012. 

But school-leavers from wealthy homes remain almost three times more likely to be popping champagne corks to celebrate a degree place tomorrow. 

And the class divide is even worse at England’s top 13 institutions.

Youngsters from poorer neighbourhoods are now 9.5 times less likely to gain entry to universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Bath or York. 

Commission chairman Will Hutton said: “While we welcome the recovery in the proportion of 18-year-olds taking up places at university after the introduction of higher fees in 2012, serious gaps in access to university remain.”

Access rates are even worse for mature students because of the rise in fees. 

Eight per cent fewer 20 to 24-year-olds applied for a university course in 2014, compared with 2010, and 11 per cent fewer over-25s applied.

Mr Hutton also raised the alarm over a “dramatic” 43 per cent fall in the number of mature students applying for part-time course since 2010. 

Lecturers’ union UCU head of higher education Paul Bridge said the report proved fees have “had a disastrous impact” on social mobility. 

He said: “This report provides yet more evidence that in the era of increased university tuition fees, a person’s background, income, age and gender are very much key determinants of their higher education prospects.”

Applications rates in England lag behind Scotland, where fees have been scrapped, and Wales, where fees were frozen.

Polling for the Sutton Trust found more than half of 1,728 adults living in England believe fees should be lowered for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

A Business Department spokesman said: “It is encouraging that applications to higher education from 18-year-olds are at an all-time high — including the applications rates for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.”