Highly-selective universities will need a century to raise participation rates

According to a report published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), it will take 96 years for the most selective universities in England to raise the participation rate for students from the least advantaged areas.

The Office for Students (OfS) said that high tariff universities must halve the gap in entry rates for young students from the most and the least privileged neighbourhoods over the next six years (2024/25) and eliminate the gap by 2037/38.

The report recommends that the number of places at highly-selective universities needs to double to 170,000 to ensure the targets are met.

Dr Pallavi Banerjee, co-author of the HEPI report and Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter said: “We need a fundamental shift in culture, with universities reflecting on the needs of students from a range of backgrounds.”

Lee Elliot Major, professor of Social Mobility at the University of Exeter and co-author of the report, said: “Current progress on fairer access to our most selective universities is glacially slow.

“The time has come for a simpler, more transparent, consistent and honest system of university admissions, recognising that A-Level grades and our system of predicted grades, are no longer the gold standard of entry.

“Failing to find ways of expanding university places will prompt acrimonious battles over who secures degree places – a clash of the classes – with politicians, parents and students questioning the fairness of university admissions.

We need a fundamental shift in culture, with universities reflecting on the needs of students from a range of backgrounds

– Dr Pallavi Banerjee

“The OfS has set the most ambitious targets ever for widening access. It is clear that they are serious about this and will use their teeth in ways they haven’t before. If universities aren’t progressing towards these targets, they will likely see financial penalties.”

The report made recommendations to help universities hit their access targets, including “using random allocations for students over a minimum A-level grade threshold”.

Secondly, the report suggests the university application system should “[move] to a post-qualification application system”.

Another recommendation suggests universities could create a “social mobility ranking” that measures outcomes for students.

Professor Major also said the most pressing and immediate action that universities could take would be lowering grade offers for students from non-privileged backgrounds. He said that English universities should emulate Scottish universities with more contextualised admissions.

“It’s not that elite institutions are the only ones [that must improve], but they have the biggest challenge,” Professor Major said.