Admission to top universities is far from fair says Academia

Dr Vikki Boliver

The research by Dr Vikki Boliver, a lecturer in the School of Applied Social Sciences at Durham University, shows applicants from state schools and from black and Asian backgrounds are less likely to be admitted to elite universities than their peers with the same A-level results from private schools and white  backgrounds.

According to an analysis of Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) data for about 49,000 university applicants over the period 1996-2006, barriers to admission to Russell Group universities are due partly to unequal rates of application, but also appear to involve some form of differential factor during the admissions process.

For applicants from state schools the analysis showed unfair access included barriers to applying.

Compared to private school applicants with the same A-level grades, state school applicants were shown to be less likely to seek places at Russell Group universities in the first place, and to be less likely to be offered places at Russell Group universities when they did apply.

For ethnic minority applicants, the unfairness appeared to stem entirely from some form of differential factor during the admissions process.

University applicants with the same A-level grades were found to be equally likely to apply to Russell Group universities regardless of their ethnic background, but those from black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds were shown to be significantly less likely than white applicants to be offered places.

Dr Boliver said: “These findings highlight the inadequacy of ‘fair access’ policies which focus almost exclusively on eliminating barriers to university application.”