Universities face tougher diversity targets and fines

UNIVERSITIES could be punished unless they give a higher proportion of top degrees to black students, under new proposals from the regulator.

The Office for Students (OFS) has announced plans to overhaul its guidelines for boosting diversity in higher education, in what it says is the “biggest shake-up” since 2004.

If institutions fail to comply with the regulator’s new “tougher” national targets for increasing the number of disadvantaged students, they could be penalised through a fine or even deregistered.

Chris Millward, the OFS director for fair access and participation, said that universities will no longer be able to “mark their own homework” on their plans to up their intake of 18-year-olds from poor backgrounds.

Instead, the new regulator plans to set a series of national targets that all universities will be expected to meet.

These will not be limited to targets for admitting more school-leavers from deprived homes, but will also include addressing the gap in degree attainment between black and white students. There has been an almost 50 per cent increase in the number of black and ethnic minority students in England between 2007 and 2016.

Some 78 per cent of white students graduated last year with a first class or upper second class degree, compared with just 53 per cent of black students.

Qualifications before attending university, although a key factor in degree outcomes, do not explain the differences between ethnic groups, according to data analysed by Universities UK.

In a consultation document, published today, the OFS sets out a number of areas that universities should work on, such as combating the higher dropout rate among poorer students compared with their middle-class peers.

Mr Millward said: “Universities have always set their own targets, and have used different measures of success. They were kind of marking their own homework. We are going to set clearer national targets.”