A Recipe for Fair Access to Universities

No one could possibly disagree with the desire to see the best students, regardless of background, have access to the best universities. Admissions Tutors wouldn't. Independent Schools wouldn't.

Much has been written recently about the role of the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) tasked with ensuring that universities arrange acceptable quota targets for pupils from the maintained sector. So I looked it up. Wikipedia can be instructive. It talked about the erection of a large artificial barrier. It described a vigorous leader that terrified all about him. It talked about a certain mystery about its purpose due to a lack of available data. It talked about it being primarily defensive and in itself a political statement of power and intent. And then I realised it was talking about Offa's dyke.

But the parallels between the university entrance regulator and the 8th century barrier between Mercia and Wales are instructive, even given the irony of the fact that one was designed to keep people out and the other to let people in. University Admission tutors are terrified of the power of Les Ebdon, the Head of OFFA. The rancour within government over his appointment leaves little doubt about the political significance of the issue. Yet it is artificial.

No one could possibly disagree with the desire to see the best students, regardless of background, have access to the best universities. Admissions Tutors wouldn't. Independent Schools wouldn't. Everyone welcomes the efforts, in some cases long overdue, of top universities widening their appeal in recent years. The removal of the restriction on numbers of university places for AAB students is also a welcome move. This is all an indication of genuinely fairer access.

But quotas for entry are the opposite. There is a basic data issue: how do you distinguish between a state school pupil whose parents have paid for private education and the one from a disadvantaged background who has had a full bursary to a private school? And artificial barriers can only restrict the freedom of choice and drive standards down. Imagine telling a company the same thing when it selects people for jobs. It is not the real world.

More importantly still, even if it worked, it is a feeble bandage on a gaping wound. All positive discrimination is. It makes us feel better, but it hides the problem. I am not a Jesuit but their maxim about education has much to be said for it. 'Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man', attributed to Francis Xavier, co-founder of the Catholic Order, has had a bad press over the years, seen as it is as a template for religious indoctrination. As a Head of a 7-18 school, I would obviously want to claim that education can make a significant difference beyond the age of seven too, and I would include the experience of Higher Education in that.

Schools and universities can be transformational. But the longer the wound lasts before it is treated, the greater the chance of gangrene. It is surely no coincidence that the introduction of a less demanding GCSE was followed by a less demanding Curriculum 2000, by years of grade inflation, by a cry from universities and employers that there is a woeful decline in basic standards. Making something easier and artificially massaging the statistics leads to decline.

So I have a suggestion for OFFA, and the Government. Concentrate instead on a Jesuitical approach and ensure that all have fair access to good teaching and high aspirations. Give the nation seven year olds who can read and write with a genuine love for learning and they will already be on the path to becoming good undergraduates: on a proper level playing field where admissions tutors can simply choose the best.

Folklore suggests that Offa's dyke had a bad effect. It is alleged that it was the custom for the English to cut off the ears of every Welshman who was found to the East and for the English found to the West to be hanged. Hardly constructive. I am sure Offa had good intentions. But it didn't work.

John Moule is Head Master of Bedford School

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