The majority of the country’s top universities have introduced schemes to give preferential treatment to pupils from poorly performing comprehensives. They range from lower A-level offers to reserving places for them. Supporters of "handicapping" argue that it gives recognition to bright pupils who have been inadequately taught and promotes social mobility. Opponents, however, believe some schemes crudely discriminate against private and grammar school pupils because of political pressure.
Out of the 39 institutions that are members of the Russell Group and 1994 Group of research universities, at least 30 have introduced schemes that give some form of extra recognition to whole categories of applicants from comprehensives or from deprived areas. Gillian Low, head of the Lady Eleanor Holles School in Hampton, west London, and president of the Girls’ Schools association, said: "We are absolutely in favour of social mobility. The issue is how that is achieved, how talented people from disadvantaged backgrounds are identified. Our objection is to anything that is generic by type of school as it does not address the individual pupil, it potentially discriminates against them. "
Low added: "It doesn’t, for example, take account of the person at the low-performing school who is having private tuition--or the fact that many of our pupils are on full bursary support. It’s too crude a tool. " Programmes include one at Manchester introduced for 2011 entry that gives priority consideration to applicants from underachieving schools and deprived areas. Durham is using a similar system.
Bristol, Exeter, Nottingham and some departments at Edinburgh advise admissions tutors to consider lowering the standard offer for a course if a successful applicant is from an underperforming school. Research at Bristol released earlier this year justified this approach on the grounds that students who had attended poor schools outperformed those with the same grades who had been better educated.
This autumn, a group of 12 universities led by Newcastle and including Birmingham, Essex, Leeds and York will pilot a scheme for about 300 promising candidates nominated by their comprehensives. They will be given coaching and in most cases will be entitled to offers up to two grades lower than applicants going to university through standard routes. Cambridge gives extra points to candidates from schools with poor average GCSE grades when short listing candidates, while Oxford gives priority to similar applicants when deciding who to interview. Neither university lowers its grade offers for places on this basis, however.
Pressure on universities to increase their numbers of state school pupils was expected to ease with the election of the Conservative-led coalition Instead, however, the government, under pressure from the Liberal Democrats, has pursued a similar approach. This weekend, David Willetts, the universities minister, said: "These are the kinds of initiatives, transparent, based on robust evidence, looking at applicants’ potential, which are a good way of promoting social mobility. "
Steve Smith, vice-chancellor of Exeter and president of Universities UK, said: "Universities make strenuous efforts to seek out potential by looking at a number of factors when selecting students, but they cannot admit people who are not applying. "This is why schemes that provide varied offers and seek out potential, as well as supporting applicants in preparing for higher education, can be so important. "
Only a handful of universities, including the London School of Economics, University College London, Warwick and Queen Mary, London, have held out against favoring whole categories of applicants although all four give extra individual recognition to candidates who have succeeded against the odds. Birmingham, Southampton and the medical school at King’s College London, set aside places for students at comprehensives in their regions. The Access to Birmingham scheme, which this year will admit 193 students--4% of the intake--gives candidate lower offers on condition they complete courses to prepare them for higher education.
When Gillian Low gave the example of the student "at the low-performing school who is having private tuition", what she wanted to convey is______.
A. students from underachieving schools should not have private tuition
B. students from low-performing schools vary in their financial conditions
C. students should be treated on an individual basis instead of "type of school"
D. students’ academic achievements are related to their economic conditions
