Pads For Students - The Location For Student House Rentals

Blog

Lower Entry Requirements for Disadvantaged In New Equity Drive

Bright students from poor performing schools who might otherwise excel given the right learning environment are being passed over repeatedly, according to one social mobility charity. Their representation in universities is too low said The Sutton Trust in a 2017 report. But now, amid ongoing criticisms of favouring students from advantaged backgrounds and high-performing schools, some universities have taken heed of the unique problems that disadvantaged students face.

 

Disadvantaged Students and The Sutton Trust

The measures from some of the top universities in the UK follows on from the report. The Sutton Trust is a charity dedicated to improving social mobility for students from disadvantaged backgrounds and helping them into further and higher education. In the report, they commended the improvements in social mobility and university access since 1997 but still felt more could be done as the gap remains wide.

The universities that are now actively lowering grades for students include Bristol, Exeter, King’s College, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, UCL, Warwick, York amongst others. They are offering access to students by lowering up to two grades. These are all high-performing universities usually requiring AAB results. Birmingham is offering up to three grades lower. Reduced grades are not universal; in most cases, medicine is excluded. Candidates will also have to pass the interview and any admission tests.

 

Realising Opportunities

The scheme to lower standards for disadvantaged students came into effect in 2010 as a pilot. National rollout with the universities who opted into the scheme began in autumn 2017. Realising Opportunities brings together universities known for high-quality educated and are noted as Research Intensive Universities (RUIs). That means any student regardless of background who is offered a place at an RO participating RUI is guaranteed a high-level of education.

Criteria for selection includes seeking out those schools and sixth form colleges with little to no history of their students going to university, particularly at those entitled to free school meals and where the family has never before ended up with a university graduate in their family.

 

Criticism and Warnings

These measures are seen as positive steps by most, particularly The Sutton Trust and other social mobility charities. However, it’s not been welcomed in all areas. Some government ministers and education analysts have said it could lead to dumbing down of the university process. It could be that such students will struggle in a degree environment because A-Levels remain a great yardstick for university performance.

However, some have criticised the level of access as being too low saying that universities still need to do more. OFS, in particular, said the scheme would not attract enough students into these high-performing universities and that government should monitor the situation, examining official statistics to see whether they are doing enough.