Student's View

It has been reported this week that 17 universities are making lower offers to state school university applicants from the poorest homes. This news comes forth in the midst of what has been an ongoing and somewhat unproductive debate.

It has been reported this week that 17 universities are making lower offers to state school university applicants from the poorest homes. This news comes forth in the midst of what has been an ongoing and somewhat unproductive debate.

For a long time, there have been promises of widening participation, of admitting more working-class students from tough backgrounds; ultimately, of changing the system for the better. But what progress has really been made? Positive results are not terribly apparent, and yet it is difficult to argue with such persistent promises. The principles behind Labour's current widening participation policies cannot be criticised. Social inequality has been recognised, rightly so, and it must be faced. Universities are responding to the pressure that Labour has applied. Yet there is something fundamentally wrong with this entire debate.

Where is the working-class voice? The people that talk about the fates of poorer students are their polar opposites. Academics and politicians from around the UK are deliberating the lives of kids who couldn't care less. Kids who couldn't care less because they have never been shown why to care more. Universities are stuffed with middle-class twits who are pompous enough to decide what is best for the next generation of under-priviliged students, and this strikes an uncomfortable dynamic that screams misunderstanding. Lord Patton, Chancellor of Oxford University, has vehemently claimed that struggling working-class students aren't his problem. Of course not. He has never visited the housing estates in the East End of Glasgow, or the struggling comprehensive schools in Moss Side, Manchester. Yet his honesty is valuable. Perhaps universities are not responsible for 'social engineering' as Patton sees it. He hasn't got the faintest idea about working-class life, and nor does he claim to. Labour go wrong by making claims that they understand, because they just don't. Although their policy is commendable, it is faceless and lacks true conviction.

Young people from poor backgrounds need to be inspired, they need role-models, they need to be given confidence to make the jump into Higher Education.
For universities to lower grades is patronising. It is an act of charity that poor students resent.  Furthermore, it is too quick and lazy a solution. Instead, universities must monitor their admissions more carefully. They must think harder about the students that they accept. Lazy admissions processes are not good enough. There needs to be a greater science behind admissions – hard evidence and understanding must be forced into the procedure. Last month, Student revealed that black students have half as much chance of getting into Edinburgh as white students. Where is the equality?  How much consideration does a bright student from a poorer background currently get? Just how much, really? More work must be done to find out and to understand.  We'll believe this widening access nonsense when we see it.