State-educated students ‘achieve better degree passes at university’

Richard Garner in the Independent quoted the Sutton Trust in its front page coverage of new HEFCE research on university admissions and attainment.

Students from state schools are more likely to achieve top-grade degree passes than those from the independent sector with the same A-level results, a major study suggests.

The findings of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), released today, have prompted calls for leading universities to place more emphasis on applicants’ backgrounds when offering places to study, and fuelled demands that some state- educated pupils should be asked for lower grades than their  private-school peers to secure a place on the same course.

It makes no difference whether undergraduates attended a community comprehensive, faith school or grammar school because they all outperform their independently educated counterparts later in their academic careers, the report says. “Students who have remained in the state-school sector for the whole of their secondary education tend to do better in their degree studies than those with the same prior educational attainment who attended an independent school for all or part of their secondary education,” it concludes. “This improved performance is not affected by the type of state school.”

…

James Turner, the director of programmes at the Sutton Trust education think-tank, said the report confirmed its own research but that there remained wide variations between state schools. He said: “We wouldn’t advocate differential admissions decisions being made solely on the basis of school type, but we do think school performance and other background factors should be taken into account in admission decisions.

“For us, it is not just about which students go on to get better degrees, but also about the value top universities  add to low- and middle-income students, the benefits of a diverse student body in  a university and the importance of future leaders coming from socioeconomically diverse backgrounds.”

Read the full article here.

Further Coverage

State pupils on same grades as private counterparts ‘get better degrees’ (Times Higher Education)
Black students ‘get lesser degrees’ (MSN News/Press Association)