15th October 2012 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Head teachers of leading private schools have hit out at the Office for Fair Access for disadvantaging university applicants from private schools. A top headmaster has argued that the handicapping of private school students in university admissions risks replacing “one type of perceived unfairness with another”. Comments also included concerns that privileging state school applicants will not necessarily increase diversity at universities.
At the head teachers’ conference in Belfast, the Office for Fair Access was accused of manipulation, and of trying to handicap students in an unrealistic attempt to make all students equal. Some teachers at private schools hinted that they may encourage students to boycott universities which ‘discriminate’ against their students, in a move which mirrors the private school boycott of Bristol University nine years ago.
The introduction of tuition fees of up to £9000 a year means that the government has asked universities to ensure that they put in place measure to ensure that poorer students are not priced out of the application process, a move which is being challenged by the head teachers who attended the conference this week. The Office for Fair Access responded by saying that the most advantaged students in the country were 7 times more likely to attend the best universities. As such, universities need to do more to ensure that they take the brightest students from state school backgrounds.