According to researchers from King's College London, genetics plays a significant role in whether young adults choose to go to university, which university they choose to attend, and how well they do. Their research was published today in Scientific Reports.
Using data from the Twins Early Development Study, the researchers found that genetic factors explained 57% of the differences in A-level exam results and 46% of the difference in achievement at university. They also found genetics accounted for 51% of the difference in whether young people chose to go to university and 57% of the difference in the quality of the chosen university.
“We have shown for the first time that genetic influence on educational achievement continues into higher education. Our results also demonstrate that the appetite young adults have for choosing to continue with higher education is, in part, influenced by their DNA,” explained Emily Smith-Woolley, from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, who co-led the research.
The researchers also found that shared environmental—such as families and schools—influenced the choice of whether to go to university, accounting for 36% of the differences between students. However, shared environmental influences appear to become less important over time for educational achievement. While shared environment accounts for up to 20% of differences in achievement in secondary school, the researchers found the influence of shared environment dropped off for achievement at A-levels and was negligible for achievement at university.
Interestingly, differences in the quality of university young people chose was strongly influenced by genetics (47%) even after accounting for A-level achievement, suggesting factors other than ability play an important role in university choice..
The results were based on studying 3,000 pairs of twins from the UK as well as 3,000 genotyped individuals. Comparing identical and non-identical twin pairs allows researchers to determine the overall impact of genetics on how much people differ on measures like exam scores. If identical twins' exam scores are more alike than those of non-identical twins this implies the difference between twin pairs is due to genetic factors.