Piling on privilege in higher education

<span>‘An intake of no more than 10% of students from independent schools to leading universities is still too high.’</span><span>Photograph: Premier Photo/Shutterstock</span>
‘An intake of no more than 10% of students from independent schools to leading universities is still too high.’Photograph: Premier Photo/Shutterstock

Numerous letters have been sent to the Guardian in recent decades urging the government to force universities to limit their intake of privately educated UK undergraduates to about 6%, in line with the proportion of children attending private schools. So it is encouraging to see that two London School of Economics professors recommend something similar to boost social mobility (Leading universities urged to take no more than 10% of students from private schools, 12 September).

Opening up Oxbridge and Russell Group universities “to wider segments of society” would prove, as Prof Aaron Reeves says, that “we’re serious about trying to generate greater social mobility”. But unfortunately, the opposite has been the case. Many private schools for years, with government approval, ensured their students achieved top grades by using the little-regulated Pre-U examinations, usually set and marked by teachers in the independent sector, and avoided the highly regulated and recently reformed A-levels.

Instructions to all UK universities should say that A-levels, the “national qualifications based on content set by the government”, and BTecs, are the only academic qualifications acceptable for university entrance by UK students. If these universities are to open up access, nerve-racking interviews, which give huge advantages to privately educated students, also have to be stopped.
Bernie Evans
Liverpool

• In 1961, I found myself as one of only 12 ex-grammar school pupils out of an intake of 130 at my Cambridge college. Sixty years on, the situation is thankfully very different there, but still not quite different enough. The same applies to all so-called leading universities. An intake of no more than 10% of students from independent schools is still too high; it still privileges the already privileged.
Prof Colin Richards
Spark Bridge, Cumbria

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