Universities give priority to poor students

MORE than half of leading universities favour students from deprived backgrounds, a report revealed today.

The report showed that top institutions, including Oxford and Cambridge, give priority to those from poor-performing schools.

It said 53 per cent of universities in the elite Russell Group take students' "family problems" into account while one in five discriminates in favour of those whose parents did not go into higher education.

Nottingham University, one of 20 institutions in the group, said students' A-level grades "may be valued more highly" if they were refugees or came from the traveller community, poor homes or a family without a history of going to university.

The study, conducted by researchers at Sheffield Hallam University, revealed that four out of 10 vice-chancellors and principals said students should be chosen "partly in order to achieve a social mix".

Critics said "social engineering" in this way punishes those who attended a good school.