Why 4,500 pupils miss out on top universities

By Laura Clark for the Daily Mail
Updated: 04:41 EST, 12 August 2009

More than 4,500 able state-school pupils miss out on places at top universities every year just because they fail to apply, a Government-backed study reveals.

Despite these pupils meeting the entry requirements, they are not giving universities the chance to offer them a place.

Schools themselves are often to blame for encouraging the view that leading universities 'are not for the likes of us', the research found.

Thousands of youngsters from state comprehensives, grammar schools and colleges are losing out on places on leading degree courses, even though their A level results are just as good as those of candidates admitted from fee-paying schools, it said.

Pupils attending top-performing independent schools make on average twice as many applications to leading universities as those with similar A-level grades attending comprehensives, it showed.

The figures will fuel controversy over access to elite universities amid a row over proposals floated by Business Secretary Lord Mandelson's department to give poor pupils a two-grade 'head start' in the admissions process.

The new study suggests that attitudes in state schools are to blame, rather than universities.

Sir Peter Lampl, whose Sutton Trust educational charity conducted the research jointly with Lord Mandelson's department, said: 'Many highly able pupils from non-privileged backgrounds wrongly perceive the most prestigious universities as "not for the likes of us".'

He added they 'often lack the support and guidance to overcome this misconception' from their schools.

The study concluded that state school pupils who did apply to sought-after degree courses were just as likely to win a place as their independent school counterparts. But their lower application rate meant that a high-achieving independent school pupil stands a 79 per cent chance of getting on one of the 500 most selective degree courses, against 70 per cent for an equally qualified state-school pupil.

If application rates were the same, an extra 4,600 state school pupils would be accepted to those 500 courses.

Sir Peter renewed his call for pupils to make university applications after their grades are known, giving state-school students who do get good grades 'the confidence to aim that little bit higher'.

The study prompted one commentator to claim Britain suffered from a 'poverty of ambition'.

Dr Wendy Piatt, director of the Russell Group of 20 prestigious universities, said: 'We cannot offer places to students who do not apply.

'We are especially concerned by the evidence that some teachers may not be encouraging students to consider Russell Group universities.'