Students object to the changes on the UCAS application form

The plan by UCAS, the university admissions service, to require applicants to record whether their parents went to university is deeply worrying to today's students. I probably wouldn't even be here under the proposed new admissions procedure," says Sara Carr, 21, an undergraduate at Cambridge University. "I went to a private school, both my parents went to university - and I'm middle class. I think it's terrible that, if I had applied via the new UCAS form, universities might allow my background to overshadow the A-levels I worked so hard for."

From 2008, universities are not only to be told whether the applicant's parents went to university, but also to be given information on parents' jobs and the would-be student's ethnic background, plus whether applicants have been in care. In the past, universities were provided with this information after the admissions process was completed.

Students are concerned that the answers to these questions could be used as admissions criteria. Although the question on parents' higher education is optional, many think, as one sixth-former puts it, that "not answering the question is as good as admitting you don't tick the right sociological boxes".

The push for social information comes from outside the world of academia - from Government and the agencies responsible for higher education. Both students and dons stress that they want to concentrate on ability.

Criticism of the UCAS changes crosses socioeconomic boundaries. Students from targeted backgrounds fear the implications of disclosing the information. One student, who did not want to be named, said that answering the questions would make him query his intrinsic value to the university. "I'm the first person to go to university in my family, and I know I got in on my own merits," he says. "Apart from anything else, I think this scheme would give me a lot of self-doubt. If I got a bad mark for an essay, I'd think, am I good enough, or did I get in because I fulfilled the criteria?"

Other students are suspicious that those from privileged backgrounds will see their academic achievements overshadowed. A friend I had at North London Collegiate School told me that when she filled in her UCAS form, she asked her parents how she could dumb down her father's job title - he was a lawyer - because she was nervous about what the information would be used for. Old Etonian Freddie Farncombe, studying French and German at Keble College, Oxford, says, "This is discrimination, whether it favours those from more privileged or less privileged backgrounds."

Another Oxford student, 22-year-old Richard Verber, has similar concerns. "It's important that talented students from poorer backgrounds are given help to go to university, but the system should not be abused so that a better candidate loses out because of his or her more privileged social situation."

The important point is what university admissions officers will do with the new details. Those in charge of admissions at Oxford are keen to play down the issue, emphasising that the decision to require the information did not come from them. Norma MacManaway, admissions tutor at Somerville College, says the university uses statistical information about students' backgrounds for access work, trying to encourage students from the inner cities to come to Oxford. "Parents' academic backgrounds do not automatically equate with a good or bad learning environment at home," she says.

"It is certainly a big achievement for a student to overcome a poor learning environment at home to excel at A-levels, but it would be difficult to assess each candidate's learning environment in a fair manner to draw appropriate conclusions. It is the candidate's academic ability and potential that we assess for admissions decisions. Information about parents' backgrounds may help us to target access activities, but it is not part of the selection criteria."

This does not seem to reassure the undergraduates. Physics student Ceri Brenner, 19, who is at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and is involved in university access initiatives, worries that UCAS's changes might undercut her work. "Knowing that a candidate's background may be taken into consideration before they have a chance at interview will make people feel uncomfortable," she says. "The information will be used to ensure universities give an even number of offers to people from different backgrounds. But they should make an offer to the candidate who is most suited to the course."

However, Ceri Nursaw, the access officer at Leeds University, says that her university wants the brightest and best students regardless of background. "We anticipate using the newly available information only to flag up the need to look for academic potential in areas other than A-levels."

Among students the mood remains sceptical. Imogen Hudson, 22, who studies illustration at Loughborough University, says that the changes are another way of forcing universities into widening participation when they should be concentrating on ability. "Universities are supposed to be about education, not social engineering," she says. "Students want to know they have been selected for their potential and their results so far, not their parents' jobs or their home environment. UCAS should drop this question from its form and leave admissions tutors to concentrate on academic issues."

'I don't see why UCAS needs to know about my mum's academic history'

Jacob Morrison-Wood, 22, studying creative writing at Leeds University, believes the UCAS changes are controversial and will discourage students from applying to university. "My parents didn't go to university. Because I applied a few years ago, that didn't affect my university application and has never affected my studies. But that might not be the case for students who apply next year. From now on, because they will have this information available, universities may give preferential treatment to those students whose parents are seen to be more 'academic' because they went to university. I definitely wouldn't be happy about giving this information - it's not relevant in deciding whether a school student is eligible to become an undergraduate. I think that if a student is talented but comes from an underprivileged background, the new UCAS regime will probably discourage them from applying."

* Danielle Abbiss, 20, is studying English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. "When I got into Oxford, it was one of the proudest moments in my mum's life. One of the reasons she pushed me so hard was because she did not have the chance to get educational qualifications herself, but I really don't see why UCAS has to know this.I find it hard to believe that a university would choose a student whose parents are window-cleaners over a person whose parents were surgeons or judges. A person's application to university should be based purely upon their academic qualifications and subject knowledge. If UCAS claims that parental background will not improve or hinder an applicant's chances, why do they need to know the information?"