By James Simons-
England’s higher education regulator has embarked on a noble campaign urging universities to look beyond exam results when admitting students and radically reassess their judgement of merit.
Their motive, is to increase their intake from disadvantaged backgrounds. They want universities to consider pupils with one B and two C’s, which appears too much of a compromise from the standard requirement of those higher institutions. A compromise to admitting pupils with three B’s would be more agreeable than coming down so low to suit disadvantaged people. After all pupils with one B and two C’s can still gain admission to a different university with lower entry requirements.
With a positive agenda which is more inclusive and aims to broaden equal opportunities, the idea proposed by the Office for Students has obvious benefits in an ideal world. Those pupils get to attend the best universities of their choosing and mix with elite students admitted with all A’s. The disadvantage is that they will always feel and be made to feel that they did not earn their place at the University.
The Office for students told The Eye Of Media.Com that ”people from disadvantaged backgrounds have more barriers to overcome. Some of them fail to make the high A grade requirements because they live in crowded homes and do not have the benefit of private tuition that does from more advantaged backgrounds have, especially those who attended private schools and have educated parents to support them”.
This is true, although those living in crowded homes could always go to the library where the environment is more tranquil than at home. The absence of private tutors is a real disadvantage, but this is also where better teaching in class should fill in the gap a bit. Good teaching is not always going to be as good as private tuition, but a system where arrangements can be made for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to study with children who attend private schools or have private tuition. Why can’t an initiative be made for children from mainstream schools to mix with such children?
A representative from the Office for students said:
”mixing children from disadvantaged backgrounds with privileged students is a good idea, but that’s one for the Department Of Education to take up. It could take generations to see the benefits of that. There usually deep inequalities right from primary school in the learning abilities of those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those from privileged backgrounds because of differences in income level, education levels which impact the way children are trained and raised.
”These systemic differences go a long way to affecting their progress levels. Children who have been in care for example are usually at a massive disadvantage from privileged children. Research shows that not all pupils who attain A’ s or A stars do better than children with lower entry grades of B’s and C’s for example. What we are saying is that entry requirements should be used contextually”.
The impressive explanation is impressive well reasoned, but has the drawback of having pupils entering the best universities knowing that they scored lower grades than their classmates. The psychological effect of that may be disabling in itself if they are seen by their classmates to have been admitted on favoured grounds, albeit with honourable intentions. They would be looked down upon by students admitted with the required top grades and may struggle to perform at the same level as them.
The Office for Students want universities to take “much stronger account of the context in which exam results are achieved”, suggesting that universities demanding high A-level tariffs need to be more flexible and even lower entry grades across the board if they want to widen participation and improve access.
FAIR
“Fair access is often caricatured as a zero-sum game: poorer kids denying places to richer kids with better A-levels. But to see it in those terms is to miss the point,” said Sir Michael Barber, the OfS’s chair.“We are wasting talent, denying opportunity and hurting our economy by not making the most of our greatest asset: our people.
“A young person from a council estate who gets decent A-levels has often had to work a lot harder than the young person from a better-off neighbourhood who gets a few grades more. That’s why it is right that contextual admissions are now an increasing part of the picture.”
The education secretary, Damian Hinds has added his weight to the idea of contextual admissions. “We know that contextual offers can play an important part in levelling the playing field so those from disadvantaged backgrounds can flourish in higher education.
“I want institutions to consider a broad range of information in their offers, including the context in which a student’s results were achieved.
“I recently announced a review of how current admissions practices can be improved, and I want to see universities progress in their efforts to improve access and successful participation for underrepresented groups.”
TALENT POOL
The OfS paper published on Wednesday argues that lowering A-level entry requirements can broaden the pool of applicants to selective courses while not affecting academic standards.
It cites an “extended medical programme” at King’s College London, which offers students greater support and spreads the first year of a medical degree over two years. “A review of the programme concluded that, with additional support, students admitted with A-level grades of CCC could thrive on medical degrees,” the OfS said.
Eligibility for free school meals , in admissions, rather than using postcode measures of education and income as they do now is being seen as a way to target disadvantaged children.Stephen Gorard, a professor of education and public policy at Durham University, said the OfS’s policies were “well meaning” but urged the regulator and the government to drop the use of area-based measures of access.Instead, Gorard advocates encouraging universities to use England’s national pupil database in the admissions process, to make contextual offers more accurate.
Gordon Marsden, the shadow minister for higher education, said the government had failed to repair the university admissions system, allowing social mobility to stagnate.
“The lack of consistency and information about contextualised admissions limits the opportunities available to students from underrepresented backgrounds,” Marsden said. The government is currently discussing plans to withhold student loans to pupils who fail to obtain three D grades at A-levels, but directing them towards vocational courses instead”.
That makes sense because pupils with 3 E’s at A levels have to weak a foundation on which to build at university. They should either repeat their A levels and improve their attainment, or pursue vocational courses. A more balanced idea may be for pupils for disadvantaged backgrounds to be considered if they achieved one A and two B’s or three B’s.
Children with disadvantaged backgrounds should be given a lot more support at an earlier stage if they want to attend the best Universities of their choice. In addition to support provided to them, they can go out of their way to read widely over the years and build their academic and intellectual skills, seeking extra academic advice from teachers or other educated adults they can find.