'Clearer' student access demanded

Leading universities say they are happy to provide information

England's universities will be required to have "transparent" admissions policies to convince people they are not biased, the government has decided.

The announcement, by Universities Secretary John Denham, is part of a redoubling of efforts to get 50% of young people into higher education.

He said he wanted universities to show that their staff were implementing their admissions policies fairly.

He also wants to see even closer links between universities and schools.

Speaking at the annual conference of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), at Warwick University, Mr Denham referred to public debate about university admissions.

Satisfaction level

"On the one hand, universities that try to take a student's individual background, the challenges they have faced, into account, are liable to be accused of political correctness and social engineering," he said.

Ultimately the debate is corrosive of public confidence in the system John Denham Universities Secretary

"But on the other, there are plenty of people prepared to take the fact of a disproportionate number of students from more privileged backgrounds at a particular university as prima facie evidence of snobbery and social bias on the part of admissions staff."

Mr Denham added: "While there is no evidence of widespread dissatisfaction with most admissions, ultimately the debate is corrosive of public confidence in the system."

He argued that the answer lay in each university having a published admissions policy and being able to show it could equip all those involved in admissions to implement the policy accurately and fairly - and assure itself that this was happening.

Hefce's chief executive, David Eastwood, and Director of Fair Access, Sir Martin Harris, have been asked to look at how each university could adopt its own "open and accountable" admissions system.

Support

The government is also concerned that decisions young people make relatively early in their schooling can have the effect of narrowing their subsequent university and career choices.

Universities are not turning away students because they speak with the wrong accent David Willetts Shadow universities secretary

For example, taking double science GCSE rather than three separate sciences can make it harder to do a pure science subject or medicine.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families is going to pilot ways of getting children even in primary schools to think about what they might subsequently wish to do.

The director general of the Russell Group of prestigious research universities, Dr Wendy Piatt, said they were happy to include more information about their admissions policies in their access agreements with Sir Martin's office.

"It is particularly important that pupils from families with less experience of higher education are given robust support and guidance along with the opportunity to study key subjects like physics and chemistry," she said.

"We are also concerned by evidence that teachers may not be encouraging some of their students to consider Russell Group universities."

Application levels

The shadow universities secretary, David Willetts, said the reason not enough young people from modest backgrounds went to university was that not enough applied.

"Universities are not turning away students because they speak with the wrong accent. The problem is much more deep-seated within our education system and it needs much more fundamental measures to tackle it," he said.

Liberal Democrat spokesman Stephen Williams said: "The government's target of getting 50% of younger people into higher education is fatuous when we have a situation where some schools in this country send 100% of their students to universities, and some send none at all."

He said greater attention should be paid to getting more young people from less privileged backgrounds into university.

The National Union of Students would like to see a national bursary scheme to help poorer students.

President Gemma Tumelty said: "Information about courses, institutions and bursaries can often be bewildering to students and prospective students - we hope that these measures will result in a much more organised and streamlined approach."

She added: "However, the only way to ensure true transparency in admissions is to move from predicted grades to post qualifications admissions."