University Admissions Policy

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 5:26 pm on 25 October 2004.

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Photo of David Chaytor David Chaytor Labour, Bury North 5:26, 25 October 2004

I agree with the hon. Gentleman, although I am not quite as confident that the system of interviewing that he advocates is the best way of identifying the students with the highest potential. It is not simply a matter of further testing, but of different testing. A progressive consensus is emerging on the need for a broader base for assessment. Professor Schwartz makes that clear when he says in his report, which is the background to much of this debate, that the evidence, which he summarises, shows that

"equal examination grades do not necessarily represent equal potential".

The challenge for university admissions tutors is to ensure that they have the tools to provide the finer degree of differentiation that is now needed.

When we consider the differences between students' backgrounds and schools—I would not expect any Minister to express this view, but I hope that they have some sympathy with it—it must be self-evident to any objective observer that a young person who has been to a school where about £20,000 a year per pupil has been invested in the educational process must have an easier task in obtaining three Cs, three Bs, three As, or whatever is required, than someone who has been to a school where £10,000 a year has been invested, and that that student must in turn have an easier task than someone who has been to a school where only £4,000 has been invested. Whether we are considering education from the ages of 11 to 18 or five to 18, we cannot discount the impact of small class sizes, well-motivated and well-paid teachers, and a high level of resources in terms of books, equipment, computers and playing fields. All those factors contribute to a student's A-level grades, in addition to their natural ability and potential. If we are serious about identifying those with the best potential, it is entirely logical, reasonable and fair that the student's background and the school that they attended must be factors in that consideration.

Much is made of the state's having no responsibility for intervening in the admissions process. That is true. No Government or state agency could intervene directly in the admission of about 250,000 students to British universities every year—that is a task beyond their capacities. We therefore need to draw the distinction between intervening in the process of admitting each individual student and intervening in universities' admissions policies in a benevolent way that ensures that their policies reflect best practice. The Schwartz report provides one or two models of good practice, although they are not necessarily the only ones. We must not see this debate as one about how we get more or fewer of our preferred kinds of students into leading research universities, because it affects every university in Britain, including the smallest modern university serving a largely local catchment area.

Campaigning for Mainstream Universities has done sterling work on admissions, although some of its members have a long way to go to improve their records. It has also produced models of good practice. Who could possibly be against OFFA making it a requirement that a British university that wishes to charge the higher fee should adopt an admissions policy that reflects best practice and on which there is broad consensus? It is beyond belief that anyone would challenge that concept.