Changing university entry requirements to boost diversity is wrong, says Lord Winston

UNIVERSITIES should not be penalised for failing to admit enough black and poor students as they are having to pick up the pieces of bad schooling, Lord Robert Winston has said.

The scientist and television presenter said that universities should not have to “modify” entry requirements in order to admit more disadvantaged students, adding that this will lead to universities being “downgraded”.

Addressing head teachers at the Girls’ School Association (GSA) annual conference in central London, he said: “It’s obviously wrong to expect universities to pick up where schools are not doing well.

“For example, for us to modify our entry requirements to bring in more black or disadvantaged children is not the right way to do it. What you’ve got to do is up their grade at 16 or 17.”

Lord Winston, who is a professor of science and society at Imperial College London and presents the BBC One documentary Child of Our Time, added: “It’s not a question of being elitist. It’s a question of having people who are capable.”

He said that universities are under massive pressure to admit more students

‘It’s not a question of being elitist. It’s a question of having people who are capable’

from deprived backgrounds and ethnic minorities.

“We’re all really worried about how we can cope with what the government want us to do,” he added.

Earlier this year, the university regulator warned that institutions that fail to improve diversity will have their tuition fees slashed by a third.

Sir Michael Barber, the chairman of the Office for Students, said he is “interested in results, not just plans”, add- ing that if a university does not “keep its promises” to improve diversity he would reduce the tuition fees cap from £9,000 to £6,000, and also threatened to fine universities.

Many universities already offer places to teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds with lower grades than their middle-class peers.

Fifteen universities including UCL, King’s College, Exeter, Manchester, Warwick, York, Newcastle, Leeds and Liverpool have launched formal schemes where students are given “contextual offers”. This means that the applicants can get an alternative offer reduced by up to two grades below the normal required level.

Lord Winston founded Reach Out Lab, a project aimed at encouraging children to conduct science experiments. He travels the country visiting schools in deprived areas and invites them to Imperial College where they can carry out practical science work.