If the government is to encourage more poor children to attend university, it is essential to understand the nature of the barriers they face. This requires data that track children from primary school through to further and higher education. Drawing on our experience of analysing large datasets, IFS played an instrumental role in the creation of administrative data of this nature, which has since been widely used to inform policy. In particular, we have shown that improving school achievement amongst poor children is key to increasing access to higher education. This work received front-page newspaper coverage, and formed part of the evidence we submitted to the Browne Review of higher education funding.