Children are failing to get in to Britain’s most selective institutions after being denied the chance to study traditional subjects such as foreign languages and separate sciences between the ages of 11 and 16, said Sir Martin Harris.
He said universities were not to blame for the gulf in entry rates between rich and poor students, because barriers emerged “much earlier in our education system”. Sir Martin, the outgoing director of the Office for Fair Access, said universities had a duty to work with schools, including providing academic coaching, advising pupils on subject options and preparing teenagers for the applications process. But he said measures applied at 18 would fail to “make a fundamental difference” to admission rates.
The comments appear at odds with those made by members of the Government, who have repeatedly criticised universities for failing to recruit enough students from poor backgrounds. Children from the richest 20 per cent of households are about six times more likely to go on to leading Russell Group universities than the poorest fifth.
For the first time this year, universities have been forced to set targets to increase the number of pupils admitted from poor backgrounds, state schools, ethnic minorities and those previously in care. They have also been encouraged to lower entry requirements for bright pupils from poor-performing state schools.
Sir Martin, who will leave his post next month, said that between 3,000 and 5,000 students with the potential to go on to top universities failed to get in.
“Schools are not always identifying the brightest young people to ensure that they have a curriculum that fully stretches them and equips them if they so wish to be a plausible candidate for a selective university,” he said.
“Can every school offer three sciences? Can every school offer modern foreign languages? If the answer to either of those questions is 'no’ then some bright kids will never get into the pool for selective universities.
“If it is not primarily the issues at 18, then it must be issues deeper in our school system or social structure. That’s why I am essentially on the side of those who say, if we are serious about helping these young people to maximise their talent, then we need to identify them, give them the proper curriculum and give them the necessary support so that they do reach the A-level grades necessary to be selected on a normal basis at 18.”
Universities must draw up “access agreements” outlining admissions targets, the amount of money spent on outreach work and measures taken to recruit more students from “under-represented groups”. The agreements for 2013-14 will be published this week.
Offa has the power to fine universities £500,000 or refuse to allow them to charge more than £6,000 in tuition fees for failure to abide by the agreement.
Sir Martin said universities “fall over backwards to be fair”, but the problem was getting young people into the pool of applications. He said he had increasingly come to the view that the solution to the apparent unfairness in admissions “lies much earlier in our education system”.
