All ethnic minority groups in England are on average more likely to go to university than their white British peers, research has found.

Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) discovered that Indian and Chinese pupils are, on average, more than twice as likely to go to university as their white British counterparts.

It found these differences also vary by background - Chinese pupils in the lowest socio-economic group are, on average, more than 10 percentage points more likely to go to university than white British pupils in the highest socio-economic group.

Furthermore, white British pupils in the lowest socio-economic group have participation rates that are more than 10 percentage points lower than those observed for any other ethnic group.

Researchers said that while large numbers of white British students get a place at university, it is the proportion of students from an ethnic minority background studying that is higher than the proportion of white British students going on to higher education.

This is now the case even amongst groups who were previously under-represented in higher education, such as those of Black Caribbean ethnic origin.

Differences in how well pupils do at school is only part of the reason behind this, researchers said.

"This means that there must be other factors that are more common amongst ethnic minority families than amongst white British families which are positively associated with university participation," they added.

"Moreover, we find that these other factors appear to be more important for ethnic minorities for whom English is an additional language and for those living in London. Future research could usefully explore the source of these differences."

Research published last month by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) found many students from disadvantaged backgrounds face barriers to success after they graduate.

Its analysis showed that six months after graduating in 2008/09, Black Caribbean graduates had the lowest rate of professional employment and also 40 months later.

Recent research by Ucas also found that teenagers from ethnic minorities are less likely to get an offer from a top university because they are more likely to apply for the courses and institutions that are the toughest to get in to.

It found these young people were more likely to aim higher in their applications than their white peers, who tend to ''play it safe''.