Admissions Policy: Laura's legacy

The case of Laura Spence has prompted a new look at university admissions

The efforts by the Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, to persuade more universities to take disadvantaged students on lower A-level grades than better-off applicants has been boosted by a new report from Universities UK, the umbrella group of vice-chancellors. It should also please Chancellor Gordon Brown in his campaign to break down the bastions of privilege at Oxford, Cambridge and other universities.

Students who apply to university from low achieving schools should be given lower offers than applicants from more successful institutions, according to the study, even though some regard the idea as "an affront to concepts of fairness".

University admissions tutors should take other things into account as well as academic achievement, said the two-year study. They should look favourably on students who can demonstrate that they are well organised, able to work independently and have a real interest in their subject even though their predicted A-level grades may be too low to secure them an offer in normal circumstances.

The report was commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills after the case of Laura Spence, the Tyneside comprehensive school pupil rejected by Oxford University, fuelled concerns about admissions policies.

Although there is a widespread belief that high A-level grades are the best predictor of university success, the evidence to support that is "very mixed", the report says, echoing the views of Margaret Hodge, the Higher Education minister, who last year supported a Bristol University scheme that gives lower offers to good applicants from schools with poor A-level results.

There was increasing evidence that A-level grades alone were not the best way to judge school leavers' potential, Mrs Hodge said. Birmingham, Warwick, Newcastle, Nottingham and Cambridge are among the universities that already take some account of low performing schools in their offers to candidates.

'Fair Enough? Wider Access to University by Identifying Potential to Succeed', published by Universities UK.

s.cassidy@independent.co.uk