Low grades may help more disadvantaged young get into university

THE UK’S leading universities would have to admit students with low grades, and some with no academic qualifications at all, to meet targets to eliminate access gaps over the next two decades, a report says.

A long-term goal to improve access for disadvantaged students to top universities will not be achieved unless a joined-up approach is taken to address all the barriers which under-represented young people face, according to the country’s most selective institutions.

A report from the Russell Group, which represents 24 leading universities including Leeds, Sheffield and York, has called for increased efforts to narrow the attainment gap earlier on in children’s schooling as it says focusing solely on university admissions will not address “embedded inequalities”.

It comes after the Office for Students (OfS), the higher education regulator, called on the top universities across the country to significantly reduce the gap between disadvantaged young people and their more advantaged peers taking degree places – or face possible financial penalties.

The OfS has set a target to eliminate the access gap to the most selective universities between students from the most underrepresented areas in the country and those from the most represented areas by 2039-40.

But modelling by the Russell Group suggests that their members would have to admit students with low grades, and some with no academic qualifications, to meet the OfS’s targets to eliminate gaps in access – even if student numbers from the most highly-represented backgrounds were capped.

Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group, said: “Russell Group universities will continue to do their part but breaking down the barriers created by educational inequality that start early in life is not a job for universities alone.”