A SIXTH form college teacher is working with a North-west university to try and raise the number of Bolton students who go on to university.

Bob Hindle, Economics teacher and Equal Opportunities Manager at Bolton Sixth Form College is spending two days a week at Manchester University doing research as part of the Government's Excellence Fellowship Initiative, which has funded the project.

Mr Hindle is working with senior lecturers in education, Dave Hall and Carlo Raffo to widen the participation of students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Mr Hindle said: "Bolton still has one of the lowest staying-on rates when it comes to post-16 education and too few students go on to university at 18. I hope that my research will find out more about the reasons behind this and that the schools, colleges and universities can work together to encourage more students to apply."

Mr Hindle said in Bolton of 64 per cent of pupils carry on to further education while in nearby towns such as Rochdale and Bury that percentage is more than 70 per cent.

The Excellence Fellowship Awards were the brainchild of the Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher education, Margaret Hodge.

College principal Roy Whittle is hopeful the research will prove a success: "We have a good record of getting young people into university from Bolton Sixth Form College.

"Five of our students won places at Oxford or Cambridge this year and many others have got in elsewhere.

"It would be nice if one day, all of our students decided to study for a degree. That could only be good news for the future of the town."