THE academic bar for female leaders in the FTSE 100 companies is set much higher than men, new research has found.

Women in the UK's biggest films are three times more likely than their male counterparts to have degrees from the top universities such as those in the Russell Group, of which the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow are members, or US Ivy League universities.

The research, from Green Park, the executive search consultancy, comes as the chairman of Tesco, John Allan, caused controversy after saying that white males in leading positions in business are "an endangered species.”

READ MORE: Cancer breakthrough after ‘missing link’ found in bats

Mr Allan later said his comments had been taken out of context and were intended to be "hyperbolic".

Green Park’s research found that 76% of the total employees in top 20 positions across the FTSE 100 who graduated from a Russell Group university are female while 70% of leaders who graduated from an Ivy League university are female.

Overall, the report said women are three times more likely to need a qualification from a prestigious university to gain a board position in the UK than men.

Further findings from The Leadership 10k Study show there is a further decline in the number of female Executive Directors in a board position. Just over a third (35%) of Non-Executive Directors are women compared to 10% of Executive Directors.

When looking at the diversity of the top twenty positions of each of the FTSE 100 organisations , utilities remains the most female friendly sector with significant growth in the number of senior female employees.

Raj Tulsiani, co-founder and chief executive of Green Park, said: "The fact that the vast majority of leaders with an education from Russell Group or Ivy League universities were women shows that female leaders need to achieve more than men before they even start their careers.

"We must work harder to improve holistic gender equality in business."

Janet Anne Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, said: “I welcome Green Park’s ambitious analysis of the top 10,000 jobs in the FTSE 100.

"The fact that successful female leaders need to aim higher academically than men to secure senior roles further highlights the need for increased attention in educational profiling and gender equality in business.

READ MORE: Cancer breakthrough after ‘missing link’ found in bats

"There’s a long way to go before there is a truly level playing field for men and women in business and it’s important for the UK’s largest companies to recognise that they may be missing out on strong leaders by putting such focus on university hierarchy."

The Leadership 10k is a review of the top 10,000 jobs in the FTSE 100.