Universities: Admissions

(asked on 17th March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to encourage university applications amongst students from the backgrounds least likely to currently go to university.


Answered by
Michelle Donelan Portrait
Michelle Donelan
Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
This question was answered on 25th March 2021

It is more crucial than ever before that we tap into the brilliant talent that our country has to offer, and make sure that university places are available to all who are qualified by ability and attainment to pursue them and who wish to do so.

All higher education (HE) providers wanting to charge higher level fees must have an Access and Participation Plan agreed by the Office for Students (OfS), in which they set out the measures that they intend to take to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds and under-represented groups to access HE and succeed in it.

In our latest strategic guidance to the OfS, we asked them to urge providers to do more to ensure that all students, particularly those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, are recruited to HE courses that will deliver good outcomes. Too many students are being let down by HE courses with low completion rates and courses which have no real labour market demand and therefore do not lead them into skilled employment. We also asked the OfS to encourage providers to do much more to work with schools in a way which meaningfully raises the attainment of disadvantaged children.

We want to help disadvantaged students by driving up standards and providing equality of opportunity so that students have access to new skills and better paid jobs. This is fundamental to this government’s ambition of enabling every person to fulfil their potential.

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