University access plan 'will fail', says Russell Group

Coalition policies designed to widen access to higher education fail to recognise the “root cause of the problem” facing teenagers from poor backgrounds, it was claimed.

The Russell Group, which represents 20 elite institutions, including Oxford and Cambridge, said underachievement at school and poor A-level course choices remained the biggest barrier to university for many students.

But the organisation said the Government’s approach risks “focusing too much on regulation of universities rather than resolving the real problems”.

The comments came in a formal response to the Government’s higher education White Paper - published earlier this summer - which outlined a series of new measures to improve access to the most selective universities.

Ministers have repeatedly criticised top institutions for failing to recruit enough students from state schools, deprived backgrounds, ethnic minorities and families with a poor history of higher education.

Privately-educated pupils are almost seven times as likely to get into Oxbridge as those from state comprehensives and twice as likely to be admitted to Britain's top 30 universities, figures show.

Under plans, each university will now be forced to set annual targets to boost applications and admissions from the poorest students. They must also spend a proportion of income on projects to attract candidates from deprived backgrounds and poor-performing schools.

The White Paper proposed giving extra powers to the Office for Fair Access to ensure universities “fulfil their outreach and retention obligations”, adding that targets would be reviewed annually.

But the Russell Group said: “We remain concerned that the Government’s proposals on access do not fully recognise the root cause of the problem and the great work already being done to improve participation.

“They risk focusing too much on regulation of universities rather than resolving the real problems: underachievement at school and poor advice on the best choices of A-level subjects and university degree course.”

Universities also raised concerns over Coalition policies designed to “reward” universities that charge the lowest tuition fees.

Under reforms, undergraduates starting university in September 2012 will pay up to £9,000 a year in fees.

But to keep prices down, ministers are taking eight per cent of places away from all universities – 20,000 in total – and auctioning them off to the cheapest institutions. Universities can bid for a share of the places if they charge less than £7,500.

But the Russell Group said it would result in student numbers “being cut from… those [institutions] which have strong demand from well-qualified applicants”.

“We do not believe that re-distributing these student numbers to institutions charging lower fees will drive up quality or improve student choice,” it said.

The comments were echoed by the 1994 Group, which represents other research universities such as York, Durham and Lancaster.

In its response to the White Paper, the group said the policy “removes places at high quality institutions from core student numbers”.