[Teaddict]

Top universities should be forced to restrict the number of private school pupils they admit so that their intake reflects society as a whole, Simon Hughes has said.

The Liberal Democrat deputy leader, who was recently appointed the government's adviser on access to higher education, said institutions had "failed miserably" to take on a fair proportion of state school students.



He said that from 2012, when they are eligible to charge up to £9,000 a year in fees, universities who demand students pay at least £6,000 should have to tackle the admissions gap and raised the prospect that admissions criteria could be altered to force them to co-operate.




Any move to introduce quotas would be interpreted by some universities as an attack on their academic independence, and face strong resistance.




Mr Hughes, who was himself educated at private schools in Wales and at Selwyn College, Cambridge, said measures ought to be added to the statute book by the beginning of the next academic year.




He told The Guardian: "My message to the universities is: You have gained quite a lot in the settlement. Yes, you've lost lots of state money, but you've got another revenue stream that's going to protect you.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education...ol-intake.html


This sort of thing really ticks me off... Evidently these private school students are just plain better otherwise the Universities wouldn't choose them. You cannot improve standards by forcing Universities to take less able students. You don't create better standards by dragging the top down.



It's nonsense.

[Abbadon27]

Oh god, here we go....

[Beska]

Take the best students. I couldn't care less if they learnt all they know from a private school, a state school or learnt it off the internet. The premise that universities should take a less-acedemically able person who went to a comprehensive over a more-acedemically able person who went to a private school is baffling. Absolute tripe.

For the record, I went to a comprehensive.

[Rational Paradox]

What a load of rubbish, universities should be picking the best candidates, regardless of what school they came from, not be forced to comply with quota's

[street.lovin']

It really ticks me off too. Surely the universities choose candidates based on their potential. It's not like they put all state schoolers' application forms in the bin straight away. I understand his point though that he want universities to give more opportunities. But using the word 'limit' is a bit harsh on private schoolers - they are ones who want the best for their future (same for state schoolers, too) and private school was their choice. Now, the limit in private school intake would put more pressure on them and may cause universities to miss potential candidates.

To be honest, Simon probably would have gone against this policy (if it is put in action) if he is 18 years old is still studying at private school.

[TimmonaPortella]

(Original post by Teaddict)
Top universities should be forced to restrict the number of private school pupils they admit so that their intake reflects society as a whole, Simon Hughes has said.

I saw this last night. I was going to have a little rant about it, and then I thought... it's the Guardian. What do you expect?
I think Beska put it best out of the above posters. I'll second that comment.

I also go to a state sixth form college, if it's relevant.

[Installation]

Urgh, I'd say this could be fixed by making state education better for the cleverer ones out there - but how? Selective schools based on a test at age 11 seems a bit harsh.

[TooSexyForMyStethoscope]

(Original post by street.lovin')
It really ticks me off too. Surely the universities choose candidates based on their potential. It's not like they put all state schoolers' application forms in the bin straight away. I understand his point though that he want universities to give more opportunities. But using the word 'limit' is a bit harsh on private schoolers - they are ones who want the best for their future (same for state schoolers, too) and private school was their choice. Now, the limit in private school intake would put more pressure on them and may cause universities to miss potential candidates.

To be honest, Simon probably would have gone against this policy (if it is put in action) if he is 18 years old is still studying at private school.

It is unfair to discriminate against someone based on their educational background. In an ideal world you would improve the standards of state school teaching so that it more closely resembles that of the top private schools. That way more state schooled children may end up at oxbridge etc.

This improvement will take time, effort and money. None of which any government like giving out. Since governments are judged on a 5 year period, they need results within a 5 year period. The policy is imperfect and unfair. But it isn't going away.

[modgepodge]

I'm not going to get massively involved in this arguement, but......Imagine 2 students both with exceptionally high IQ. They both work as hard as they can at school. However, one has parents who can afford to pay for their education, and as a result they attend the top school in the country and get A*A*A* or whatever. The other student lives in some **** hole and attends a crap comprehensive in an inner city. Depsite doing the best they can, due to crap teaching, they are only able to achieve ABB. Is it fair that they don't get to go to such a good uni? If they've got a good work ethic and are highly intelligent, there's no reason that they shouldn't do as well as the first student when given the same input at uni.

I don't come from either of these backgrounds, I went to a good comprehensive. But to completely ignore people's backgrounds means you WON'T get the best students at uni, you'll get the rich ones who went to private school and, dare I say it, had their A Levels spoon fed to them (contraversial I know), and perhaps won't do so well in the more independent working environment at uni.

[milkytea]

No, just no.

I am from a poor background but managed to get a scholarship and therefore afford private education, do I deserve to face inverse discrimination because of that?

This is just Simon Hughes and indeed the Lib Dems feebly attempting to regain some popularity with poor students. Well I say *******s to that.

[Huskaris]

Perhaps Mr. Hughes a better idea would be to promote the idea of grammar schools. Both of my parents came from very working class backgrounds, both went through the grammar school system and are now very successful. I just don't buy this "only rich kids get into grammar schools" *******s. Even if its a 50/50 split it's just cutting your nose off to spite your face.

Education is the main facilitator of social mobility, so give people the opportunity who want to work hard to go to a decent school and therefore university

[TruckBear]

I'm going to go against the grain and say that universities should be less likely to give out offers, and give out different offers, to applicants if they went to a high-achieving school. I believe that I, who went to a very good comp school, should have found it harder to get an offer, and received a higher offer, than somebody who was at a significantly worse school. Furthermore, I should have found it easier to get an offer, and my offer should be lower than somebody who went to [insert top school here]. Whether the schools are private schools or not shouldn't necessarily matter a great deal. It is, of course, true that most of the top achieving schools are private schools, so they would be hit by such a system.

It just seems fair both in terms of taking into account what the true potential of the people applying is, and in going some way to counteract the extremely difficult to resolve inequities in the school system.

[Bumbl]

Why do I always start to think about this when someone talks about private schools?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORLN45b64n0

[doomhalo]

I think everyone should have an equal chance to get into university regardless of their background but because of grade inflation at private schools, private school offers should be higher. But to some extent that's already true...

[Theconomist]

Improve state education.

[doomhalo]

(Original post by Bumbl)
Why do I always start to think about this when someone talks about private schools?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORLN45b64n0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKFjWR7X5dU
I think of this

[Maker]

Just make private school students pay uni higher fees. Say £33,000 per year and use the money to subsidise poorer students and improve the uni and state education.

I think thats fair because if you can afford to go to private school to gain an advantage, you should pay for it at uni as well. Private education is all about buying advantage.

[perrytheplatypus]

(Original post by modgepodge)
I'm not going to get massively involved in this arguement, but......Imagine 2 students both with exceptionally high IQ. They both work as hard as they can at school. However, one has parents who can afford to pay for their education, and as a result they attend the top school in the country and get A*A*A* or whatever. The other student lives in some **** hole and attends a crap comprehensive in an inner city. Depsite doing the best they can, due to crap teaching, they are only able to achieve ABB. Is it fair that they don't get to go to such a good uni? If they've got a good work ethic and are highly intelligent, there's no reason that they shouldn't do as well as the first student when given the same input at uni.

I don't come from either of these backgrounds, I went to a good comprehensive. But to completely ignore people's backgrounds means you WON'T get the best students at uni, you'll get the rich ones who went to private school and, dare I say it, had their A Levels spoon fed to them (contraversial I know), and perhaps won't do so well in the more independent working environment at uni.

^ This is one one the problems.

Quotas aren't the best way, but I can't think of anything else that'd work...

[Teaddict]

(Original post by TooSexyForMyStethoscope)
It is unfair to discriminate against someone based on their educational background

But it is fair to discriminate based on academic ability and that's what Simon Hughes appears to be attacking... how dare Universitie choose the most able and academically capable.

It's nonsense - they should choose the best - end of.

(Original post by doomhalo)
I think everyone should have an equal chance to get into university regardless of their background but because of grade inflation at private schools, private school offers should be higher. But to some extent that's already true...

Grade inflation at state schools you mean?

(Original post by Maker)
Just make private school students pay uni higher fees. Say £33,000 per year and use the money to subsidise poorer students and improve the uni and state education.

I think thats fair because if you can afford to go to private school to gain an advantage, you should pay for it at uni as well. Private education is all about buying advantage.

You make the assumption that everyone at private school is rich - that just isn't the case and hasn't been the case for years. You seem to be supporting educational background discrimination here.

[eLECTROLOSIS]

Simon Hughes is a nob. People that deserve the best Uni places are those that achieve highest.

I know plenty of people from my city that managed to get into the best secondary school in the city and subsequently have received offers from the greatest Uni's in the country.