Privileged students should face greater scrutiny despite A-grades https://www.ft.

com/content/3b1c9702-4e27-11e8-9471-a083af05aea7

The cleaners who tackle the student accommodation at one of England’s most reputable
universities have come up with a name for certain residents. Those blessed with piles of high-end
denim and state-of-the-art personal tech are known as the DODs — “Daddy owns Devon”. These
expensively schooled offspring of the affluent take up places on undergraduate courses as the
natural next step on the ladder to success.

Once they graduate, however, campaigners for meritocracy would like to place a few extra barriers
in their way. In remarks to a conference on social mobility, reported this week, Justine Greening,
the former education secretary, told employers to call time on the DODs. Recruiters, she said,
should recognise that high A-level grades achieved by hot-housed pupils were “not as impressive”
as those of candidates from more modest backgrounds. By singling out students from Eton — the
boys’ public school attended by her sometime cabinet colleagues David Cameron and Boris
Johnson — her remarks were sure to prompt cries of “class war!”

But Ms Greening, whose own CV boasts a Rotherham comprehensive and a first-class degree,
raises an important point. The context in which a sixth former achieves their exam grades tells you
as much about them as the actual results — and can be a better predictor of future success. In fact,
evidence shows a more circumspect eye should be cast across exam grades lower down the ladder
by university admissions departments.

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Research has repeatedly shown that promising undergraduates from state schools with only so-so
exam grades tend to go on to outperform more privileged children with better marks. As Steven
Jones, senior lecturer in education at the University of Manchester, put it in a recent report
comparing the final degrees of the different groups: “The full academic potential of high-ability
state school children is not always realised until those children reach university.”

In 2009, Bristol university pioneered a scheme requiring slightly lower grades from applicants
from non-traditional backgrounds, which led to a distinct froideur in relations with private
schools. But the decision sprang from evidence that its students from state schools were matching
or even overtaking those from the independent sector with the same grades on entry. Last year,
Bristol went further, opening the door to a four-grade discount for students who battle serious
challenges, such as being brought up in a care home.

Do not clutch your pearls, dear reader, at perceived “unfairness”. It turns out that a fifth of
students from the sort of homes and schools accustomed to sending young fry off to college already
benefit from discounted offers. According to a new report from the Sutton Trust, an education
charity, fully 20 per cent of the non-disadvantaged students at some of the most selective
institutions, where the requirement is usually A grades, only achieved two Bs and a C at A-level.
The authors note there is “a wide distribution of achievement among students attending these
universities”. In other words, there is no shortage of DODs at some institutions who may (how
shall we put it politely?) already have hit their own academic high notes.

What the most prestigious universities lack, on the other hand, is a diverse student body. In spite
of a steady increase in the number of poorer students going to university, the proportion at the
most prestigious institutions, including Oxford and Cambridge, has not been rising. It is a stubborn
problem that may see them fall foul of the new super-regulator, the Office for Students.

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, argues for “bold” action, saying: “If

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Privileged students should face greater scrutiny despite A-grades https://www.ft.com/content/3b1c9702-4e27-11e8-9471-a083af05aea7

you had everything going against you, and you can still get three Cs, they should look at you.” This
week Hepi plans to publish advice to the regulator on fair access. While praising schemes such as
Bristol’s, Mr Hillman’s experts also want the UK government to — yet again — consider pushing
back university admissions until after the A-level results.

Offering places before exam results land creates distortions: private schoolteachers tend to
overestimate A-level predictions on application forms, while state schools are likely to be too
cautious.

The biggest improvement would come from additional places at prestigious universities — several
are expanding. But at Oxford and Cambridge, the college system has been a block on finding space
for the thousands of applicants with identical scores who they reject every year. How about another
college? Durham, hot on the heels of Yale, plans to build two. That way, the deserving DODs can
carry on unmolested alongside more first-generation students. Class war averted.

miranda.green@ft.com

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