Edinburgh University to target poorer pupils

Edinburgh University ignored independent schools' protests yesterday by pressing ahead with plans to dispel its elitist image and recruit more state school students with lower A-level grades.

The university argues that academic qualifications are not the only way of judging how students will perform at degree level. From next year Edinburgh will consider every applicant's family history and educational background as well as their exam results.

The university – the alma mater of Gordon Brown, the Chancellor; Stella Rimington, a former head of MI5; and the authors Sir Walter Scott and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has struggled to shake off its exclusive image. It has repeatedly failed to meet its targets for increasing access to people from poor backgrounds and has a reputation for attracting independent school students from England.

Edinburgh was, though, one of seven universities accused last year of discriminating in favour of state sector applicants. The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), which represents top fee-paying schools, said good candidates from its schools were being rejected by the English, French, history and law departments.

The university, which demands up to three A grades at A-level for popular courses, is planning to overhaul its admissions process. It will set a new minimum requirement of BBB at A-level or BBBB in Scottish Highers for nearly all subjects.

In addition, a points system will mark students on such factors as the school they attended and whether anyone in their family has been to university. Points will be awarded for evidence of motivation, resourcefulness and suitability for their chosen subject. Scottish students, particularly those from the Edinburgh area, will receive extra marks. Credits will be given to disabled people and those whose schooling was disrupted by family tragedy or some other traumatic event.

The university will be the first to assesssystematically all applicants in this way. It said the step was the first in a much wider programme to overturn its exclusive image.

Professor Timothy O'Shea, the university's principal, said he was uncomfortable that Edinburgh had ranked alongside Oxford, Cambridge and St Andrews as the most elitist institutions in the country.

He said massive demand for places at the university had led to an increase in the entry grades required. "As we know, the Higher and A-level entry grades are not particularly good indicators of university performance," he said. The university was setting a minimum threshold rather than increasing grades again.

Only 63 per cent of Edinburgh's students attend state schools, against a target of 77 per cent. Only 13 per cent come from working-class families against a proposed 19 per cent, according to Hefce, the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Dick Davison of the Independent Schools Council said the move was disturbing. "We believe it is not fair to candidates who have worked hard at good schools for good A-level results only to be told that the currency they hold now only is of relative value."

Dr Philip Evansof the HMC's and Girls' Schools Association's universities sub-committee, said: "We are concerned at admissions processes which have a fundamental lack of objectivity."