The academic advantages of faith schools may be exaggerated, a new study in Britain has claimed. Undertaken by the Education Policy Institute, the study examined the characteristics of pupils attending faith schools, how socially selective faith schools may be, and pupil attainment. It found that disadvantaged pupils are under-represented at faith schools, while those with high prior attainment are over-represented. The researchers were thus prompted to seek a control group in non-faith schools with similar characteristics to those in faith schools, finding that the difference in attainment is largely eliminated once pupil characteristics are accounted for in this way. The study comes at a time when the British government is proposing to increase good school places which includes a proposal to remove the 50% cap on faith-based admissions for oversubscribed faith free schools.