Lessons in Digital Inequality: Degrees of Digital Divide

As the new academic year gets underway, it’s not just grades that provide barriers to entry. The digital divide is no longer a side issue in higher education but is the front door through which every student must pass. Too often, the journey to a university degree is undermined long before enrolment and frequently starts at home, with a lack of reliable access to devices, connectivity or the confidence to use them.

New research from the Digital Poverty Alliance’s Higher Education Paper Brief 2025 reveals the scale of the challenge. While virtually all respondents, 98 per cent, agree that having a personal laptop is essential for university success, 26 per cent of young people report not having access to a laptop or similar device at home. For 67 per cent of respondents, the lack of a device or reliable internet not only impacts their ability to complete their studies but also affects their decision to apply for higher education in the first place.

These figures reflect a systemic mismatch. Mandates for digital and online learning are growing, but, for many, the means to meet them are beyond their bandwidth.

Mandates Without Means

Digital inclusion cannot rest solely on individual institutions or charitable efforts. Yet the sector currently offers a fragmented patchwork of provision. With only 10 per cent offering comprehensive extended loan schemes, most students from lower-income backgrounds face severe disadvantages.

At the same time,  98 per cent, of families and students note access to a personal laptop as crucial for successfully applying to and studying at university. Considering government policies and national curriculums embed digital assessment, remote lectures, virtual submissions and AI-driven learning tools as integral to learning, ensuring all students have sufficient access to a device should be fundamental.

Schools, colleges and universities continue to demand more from digital infrastructure and competence, but many students, particularly those from lower-income backgrounds, lack the digital foundations they need to thrive in a digitally driven classroom and society.

Universities need to build inclusive provisions; government funding needs to match the expectation of digital participation and digital inclusion must be embedded in policy design across education systems. Device depravity should never equate to depravity of opportunity.

Degrees of Inequality

 In higher education today, digital access is not a luxury, but the foundation of learning. Lecture notes, assessments, research databases, group projects and even student support services are all delivered online. Yet thousands of students lack devices and connectivity required to participate fully. Just as you cannot get many jobs without a degree, you cannot get a degree without a laptop.

When digital infrastructure is unreliable or absent, inequalities deepen. Students with secure devices and broadband enjoy consistent access to resources, flexible study patterns and the reassurance of meeting deadlines. Those without are left juggling borrowed devices or using limited campus facilities, often at the expense of time or performance.

The consequences of this impact far more than grades. Digital exclusion creates stress, isolation and anxiety about falling behind and, worse even, getting ahead. With 61 per cent of employers reporting shortages in digital skills even in entry-level roles, graduates who lacked equal access during their studies are often less prepared for the workplace. These gaps in attainment are not about ability, but about access.

The attainment of a degree should measure knowledge, not resources, and closing the digital gap requires more than piecemeal laptop loans. Sustained investment in resilient digital infrastructure, affordable connectivity and a clear expectation that every student is equipped with the tools to get the most out of their degree from the outset.

Unless digital access is treated as a basic entitlement in education, higher education will continue to reproduce the very inequalities it is meant to reduce. The laptop has become as essential, if not more so, than the library once was, without which the promise of education and subsequent opportunity remains out of reach.

Graduating Beyond Digital Inequality

The recent national curriculum assessment review underscores a truth impossible to ignore: our education system does not work equally well for all learners. Nowhere is this inequality more prevalent than in the digital divide. Digital skills are embedded across every subject, yet access to devices and connectivity required to develop them remains patchy, even though every secondary pupil should have a keyboard device and access to structured digital-skills programmes.  

A national minimum entitlement offers a way forward, one that would guarantee that every learner, regardless of socio-economic background has access to reliable devices, affordable connectivity and opportunities to build digital literacy as a core part of their studies. Entitlement goes far beyond hardware and must encompass teacher training, curriculum integration and clear guidance on the ethical use of generative AI, alongside fair assessment methods that recognise digital fluency as a fundamental skill for both education and employment.

No young person should be denied the chance to pursue a degree because they lack a laptop, a WI-FI enabled home or the confidence to use digital tools. As we mark End Digital Poverty Day, our focus must shift from ad hoc interventions to systemic solutions, embedding digital inclusion into the architecture of higher education through measures like consistent financial support and safe integration of AI tools.

Universities, policymakers and education leaders must work in unison to bridge the gap before the degree begins. Mandates must be matched by means, digital competence must be seen not as advantage, but as equality. Only then can we ensure that ambition and talent, not connectivity, determines who succeeds in higher education.

By Elizabeth Anderson, CEO of the Digital Poverty Alliance