Top universities would need to recruit deprived students irrespective of grades to meet targets, report finds
Russell Group universities would need to recruit all disadvantaged students with three A-levels irrespective of their grades to meet admission targets, a report has found.
The country’s 24 most prestigious universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, would be forced to take a series of drastic measures in order to satisfy the higher education watchdog’s ambition to eliminate the gap in admissions between rich and poor students.
By 2039/40, the gap between undergraduates from the most privileged and the least privileged backgrounds at “high tariff” universities should be reduced to zero, according to a target set by the Office for Students (OfS).
But a new analysis by the Russell Group argues that based on current trends, the only way to achieve this would be to admit all students from the most deprived households who take three A-levels, regardless of their grades by 2026.
By 2035, the top universities would need to recruit all students from the most deprived households regardless of whether they have got any academic qualifications at all, it adds.
The Russell Group argues that the burden cannot fall on universities alone to address societal inequalities in education.
“To eliminate gaps in access to university, work needs to start much earlier in the education lifecycle,” the report says.
“A focus solely on university admissions will not address embedded inequalities. What universities can do is only part of the picture.”
The Government should adopt a new national strategy to tackle inequality in education which lasts at least a decade, the report says.
Chris Millward, director for fair access and participation at the OfS, said that the UK’s most selective universities have made good progress in recent years in boosting the number of students they admit from deprived backgrounds.
But he added that there is still “a long way to go” before opportunities are “genuinely available” to everyone in the country.
“The current crisis has revealed different experiences and outcomes across our educational system, so it is more important than ever to make progress on tackling inequality in higher education,” Mr Millward said.
“We are working to ensure that vulnerable and disadvantaged students receive the best possible support during the coronavirus outbreak, and we will be looking to universities to get back on track with their plans to address equality gaps as the nation moves out of lockdown.”
Michelle Donelan, the higher education minister, said that universities “play a vital role in levelling up opportunities for everyone”.
She added: “It is more crucial than ever before that we tap into the brilliant talent that our country has to offer, and make sure that anyone who wants to, whatever their background or wherever they come from, is given the chance to go to university.”
The Russell Group report comes as a former Government advisor said that universities should be charged an extra levy and have student numbers capped in low quality courses which cost the Exchequer millions.
Philip Augar, who was commissioned by the former Prime Minister Theresa May to carry out a review into higher and further education, said that he now believes that slashing the tuition fees of certain courses would now be “too destabilising” for the sector.
Instead, universities which put on low quality courses could be forced to pay the Government an additional sum of money which could be spent on courses that are more important for the economy. A cap on student numbers for low quality courses could also be considered, he added.
