Undermining the elitism

There has been a decline in the numenb of students from poorer backgrounds attending 'top' universities. There are 126 fewer students from 'disadvantaged' backgrounds attending Russell group unis than 10 years ago. 126 doesn't sound like much of a difference, which inherently is the point actually. Governments have supposedly faced this problem full on over the last 10 years to enable greater access and engender wider social mobility. Clearly this is not happening.

As an alumnus of the wonderful Open university which lives and breathes by the motto of access to all the system as it is seems abhorrent and this is not acceptable by any measure. It appears it is easier to access a so called top tier university if one has had a private education/attended a public school than if one has attended a state school. The question is why? Apparently the fees are not the problem. Although they have risen dramatically, students themselves are aware that repayment options are what can only be described as generous and encouraging.

It is the institutions themselves that are the problem. Eminently academically capable students from state schools just don't feel like they belong there. This has to be addressed. The commission looking into this makes it clear that universities outside of this group have made 'great progress' in admitting those from poorer backgrounds. So there is no reason why these institutions cannot. Social snobbery needs to be set aside, undermine even at every turn and this would be a great starting point to do just that.

It's also clear that its not that state school learners aren't achieving the grades. They are - to the point that the commission declares there are 3,700 'missing' state school taught pupils who could and perhaps should have been admitted. This is a crying shame.

So what is the solution? These institutions need to overcome their own snobbery and look at grades and grades alone first. Then, perhaps the greatest difference maker would be if learners could apply AFTER getting A level results. Those with better than anticipated results from these backgrounds would then have much more confidence to apply to these institutions with a sense of their won worth statistically proven by their grades.

the other radical and controversial idea of course is to offer places to these pupils on lower grades than those from the public school systems. Does that sound unfair?  Tough! it's unfair that so many talented intellectually competent people are being excluded right now because of their background. In fact UK/US research on that often suggests that those entering under such a system perform considerably better than those that have sailed through.

It's a big area for government, universities and admissions officers to consider. If however the government wants to really reform the education system top to bottom and allow for proper social mobility based on egalitarianism rather than elitism this must be addressed.