Bias against private pupils at Bristol is 'wildly exaggerated'

Claims that independent school pupils are discriminated against by Bristol University's admissions policies are "exaggerated wildly", a leading expert on university admissions said yesterday.

Brian Heap, who has produced the definitive guide to university degree courses for 33 years, argued against a boycott of the university, which has been advocated by some schools. He told The Independent he had advised several independent school pupils to apply to Bristol this year "and they have got in".

Mr Heap's annual book, Degree Course Offers, published today, is considered a bible for students searching for a university place, and lists all courses on offer at higher education institutions in the UK.

The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Association and Girls' School Association, the leading organisations representing private school headteachers, called for a boycott of Bristol because of alleged discrimination against independent school pupils.

The university has admitted entry grades for state school students from disadvantaged areas have been lower in some courses, but said evidence shows the resulting recruits are likely to obtain better degrees.

Mr Heap said: "I think it would be true to say in some subjects only four, five or six places may be made available to those from disadvantaged areas." He said the argument surrounded three courses at the university, English, history and law. Private school headteachers have also criticised admissions for economics.

The problem, he said, was the growing number of students, all of whom had three A grade passes at A-level, applying for courses. In English at Bristol, 510 students with similar qualifications had applied for just 47 places.

"Parents and teachers have assumed that because you have got the grades you have got the place," he said. "I have a great deal of sympathy for the admissions tutors. They are very genuine people who do have to sift through a lot of very good applications." But, he added, independent school pupils had been successful in their applications to the university, and he had helped several to obtain places.

Mr Heap also spoke out against the Government's controversial overhaul of the sixth-form curriculum, introduced in 2000. He said the introduction of the AS level examination at the end of the first year of the sixth-form – while it could give more information to tutors than just GCSE grades – had left youngsters with "very little time" to study anything else.

"When they apply, they can be asked, 'How much reading have you done outside the A-level course?' and the answer is, 'We've no time.' That is sad."

Mr Heap said this year for the first time, 129 courses in forensic science are on offer. "It is incredible," he said. "Two or three years ago there would have been only one or two courses." He put it down to the popularity of TV programmes such as Silent Witness, glamorising the role of the forensic scientist. The only similar rise he could recall was in veterinary science courses during the heyday of the BBC TV programmeAll Creatures Great and Small.

* Standards of university research in the social sciences have fallen, a government-backed report said yesterday. A commission of inquiry said "excessive accountability burdens" among staff has "reduced the originality and quality of much academic research".

Degree Course Offers, Trotman, £22.99.