Bernie Evans and Prof Colin Richards respond to a proposal for leading universities to limit their intake of pupils from private schools to 10%
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. Continue reading...
