UK Education Watchdog Urge Elite Universities To Admit More Poor Students

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The head of the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) in the U.K., a non-departmental public body dedicated to promoting equitable access for undergraduate applicants, has called on the top universities across the country to reach out to more talented students from poor homes, after the latest data showed that the proportion of poor students at elite universities had fallen.


The head of the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) in the U.K., a non-departmental public body dedicated to promoting equitable access for undergraduate applicants, has called on the top universities across the country to reach out to more talented students from poor homes, after the latest data showed that the proportion of poor students at elite universities had fallen.

According to Professor Les Ebdon, who took over as the director of OFFA this week, the latest research showed that the richest 20 percent of young people in the country were seven times more likely to enter an elite institution compared to the poorest 40 percent.

This ratio had risen from six times more likely in the mid-1990s, Professor Ebdon said, meaning that the country was losing out on “all of the potential academic talent there is out there, while best universities were “not going to stay world class in a very competitive world unless they have access to the full pool of talent”.

[quote]“Clearly, that is a concern and the size of the challenge that we face,” said Ebdon to The Telegraph. “I think, if there is equal opportunity and fair access, one would want to see that ratio move to one-to-one, as it is in the majority of universities, but clearly that is not going to happen overnight as the causes are deep-seated and ones we have all got to work at.[/quote]

“But I certainly don’t underestimate the importance of that challenge,” he added.

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According to Ebdon, the very best U.K. universities, such as Cambridge and Oxford, could begin by staging more summer schools and sponsoring state academies to boost application rates among poor students.

Oxford and Cambridge – where more than four-in-10 students are from private schools – faced a “more stark” challenge, Ebdon admitted, though he believed that these institutions, as befitting their status should “set themselves more challenging targets”.

[quote]”Universities have always looked for academic potential and where there is good sound research showing that is a sensible thing to do and that it’s working then I would be supportive of a university going down that route if that’s the decision they make,” he said.[/quote]

Bu the Russell Group, which represents 24 leading universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, has repeatedly insisted that the use of admissions targets were impossible given underperformance in state schools.

Dr Martin Stephen, a former educator at Manchester Grammar School and the Perse School, also wrote in an op-ed piece to The Telegraph that Ebdon was making a “classic mistake” of turning university admissions into “a tool of social engineering on a vast scale.”

“What on earth sort of world are we living in? Professor Ebdon is making the classic mistake. He comes from the very new category of “recruiting”, as distinct from “research”, universities. He seems to have no insight in to or experience of traditional elite universities, and is determined to turn all UK universities into the type he knows.”

[quote]“How odd. I always thought it was intelligence and academic ability that decided university entry,” Dr Stephen added. “Clearly a place at an elite university is no longer a reward for hard work and superior ability; it’s compensation for a disadvantaged childhood. Equally, denial of a place through the adoption of quotas is a fair and just punishment for the child who dared to allow themselves to be born to affluent and advantaged parents.”[/quote]

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Professor Ebdon, on his part, caused a political stir when he was appointed as head of OFFA earlier this year. According to the BBC, several Members of Parliament on the business, innovation and skills select committee voted against his appointment, saying they “were not convinced by Prof Ebdon’s descriptions of the root causes of the obstacles to accessing universities”.

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