{"id":44907,"date":"2018-08-15T13:47:30","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T20:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=44907"},"modified":"2018-08-15T13:47:30","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T20:47:30","slug":"a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\/","title":{"rendered":"A-level results: should universities lower entry grades for disadvantaged students?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nStudents from less advantaged backgrounds are grossly underrepresented in Britain\u2019s top universities. This underrepresentation of certain groups is particularly pronounced in highly competitive courses such as medicine. In England, for example, 80% of medical students come from just\u00a020% of the country\u2019s secondary schools<\/a>. This leads to a profession dominated by certain demographic groups.<\/p>\n

This imbalance isn\u2019t just an issue of \u201cfairness\u201d or social equality. It is well established that\u00a0UK trained doctors<\/a>\u00a0from affluent backgrounds are\u00a0less likely to choose to work in rural or deprived areas<\/a>. This is especially true in less desirable specialisms such as general practice and psychiatry.<\/p>\n

This has left the NHS heavily reliant on the recruitment of overseas doctors to fill such posts. But such staff are frequently recruited from low and middle income countries that can ill afford to lose their own homegrown doctors.<\/p>\n

It has\u00a0been highlighted<\/a>\u00a0by Julian Simpson, who has written on and researched the subject, that this \u201cshortage\u201d of doctors willing to work in certain areas stems, fundamentally, from a \u201clack of alignment between the aims and needs of the NHS and the social and professional aspirations of doctors trained in British medical schools\u201d.<\/p>\n

Grade discounts<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Recent research<\/a>\u00a0shows that, once in university, students from England\u2019s most poorly performing secondary schools generally do as well academically as their peers from England\u2019s highest performing schools. Even if they achieved somewhat lower A-level grades.\u00a0Similar findings<\/a>\u00a0from higher education in general have been reported.<\/p>\n

This lends evidence to a fact that seems intuitive. That is, the grades a pupil achieves at A-level (or equivalent) are, on average, at least partly dependent on the school they attend. So, in order to make university admissions fairer, should students who attend schools where pupils generally leave with lower grades, be offered places based on reduced A-level achievement \u2013 known as \u201cgrade discounting\u201d?<\/p>\n

Some universities \u2013 such as Birmingham, Southampton and King\u2019s College London \u2013 have already trialled such A-Level \u201cgrade discounting\u201d for medical school place offers for applicants from less advantaged backgrounds. The\u00a0early evidence<\/a>\u00a0from such schemes is that the differences in academic outcomes between students entering with reduced A-level requirements and mainstream entrants are minimal, at most.<\/p>\n

At present, it is unclear whether any meaningful differences would exist between qualified doctors who entered medical school via conventional policies or those who had gained admittance via such schemes. After all, people just want to be treated by safe, competent and compassionate practitioners.<\/p>\n

Like for like?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

But rolling out such an approach on a university wide scale, wouldn\u2019t be a straightforward matter. For a start, there is the issue of how to effectively \u201ccontextualise\u201d A-level (or equivalent) achievements. In this way, clear information about how to compare secondary schools would have to be available to university selectors \u2013 and such information currently is not always easy to come by. Likewise, for overseas applicants, making comparisons between institutions would be difficult, if not impossible.<\/p>\n

Then there is the issue that some pupils from less advantaged backgrounds may not even consider applying for more prestigious or competitive courses at university. So such A-level grade discounting would have to be part of a package of measures to increase universities\u2019 outreach among schools and the dissemination of information to teachers and careers advisers.<\/p>\n

Such policies would also be clearly vulnerable to \u201cgaming\u201d from well-resourced families. It is easy to imagine, for example, how some advantaged pupils may be independently schooled until the last couple of years of their education, and for them then to be moved to state schools to take advantage of such admissions policies.<\/p>\n

Further afield<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In the US, \u201caffirmative action\u201d policies have been used to encourage ethnic diversity within some universities. Such policies have been\u00a0weighed and tested through the court system<\/a>. The resulting verdicts make it clear that such approaches to widening participation cannot rest solely on the issue of \u201cmoral equality\u201d. Rather, the case has to be made based on the educational advantages of a more diverse population of students.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0most recent US Supreme Court verdict<\/a>\u00a0also stressed that any \u201cpositive discrimination\u201d in favour of underrepresented groups should also be proportionate and regularly reviewed. This implies that \u201cgrade discounting\u201d, involving modest reductions in the A-level requirement for entry to certain courses for certain disadvantaged applicants, if applied with clear objectives and regularly reviewed, is likely to withstand legal challenge, at least in the US.<\/p>\n

So while grade discounting is unlikely to cure all the lack of diversity on the most competitive university courses, it may well play a useful role as part of a package of measures designed to widen access to certain professions in the UK.<\/p>\n

Author Bios: <\/strong>Paul Tiffin is a Reader in Psychometric Epidemiology a the University of York, Lazaro Mwakesi Mwandigha is a Postgraduate research assistant at Imperial College London and Lewis Paton is a Research Fellow at the University of York<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students from less advantaged backgrounds are grossly underrepresented in Britain\u2019s top universities. This underrepresentation of certain groups is particularly pronounced in highly competitive courses such as medicine. In England, for example, 80% of medical students come from just\u00a020% of the country\u2019s secondary schools. This leads to a profession dominated by certain demographic groups. This imbalance […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":44908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15645],"tags":[224376],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-44907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-social-equality"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA-level results: should universities lower entry grades for disadvantaged students? - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A-level results: should universities lower entry grades for disadvantaged students? - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Students from less advantaged backgrounds are grossly underrepresented in Britain\u2019s top universities. This underrepresentation of certain groups is particularly pronounced in highly competitive courses such as medicine. In England, for example, 80% of medical students come from just\u00a020% of the country\u2019s secondary schools. This leads to a profession dominated by certain demographic groups. This imbalance […]\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-15T20:47:30+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/mortarhat.jpg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"680\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"454\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"headline\":\"A-level results: should universities lower entry grades for disadvantaged students?\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-15T20:47:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":825,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/08\\\/mortarhat.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"social equality\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Education\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\\\/\",\"name\":\"A-level results: should universities lower entry grades for disadvantaged students? - World leading higher education information and services\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/08\\\/mortarhat.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-15T20:47:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/08\\\/mortarhat.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/08\\\/mortarhat.jpg\",\"width\":680,\"height\":454},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A-level results: should universities lower entry grades for disadvantaged students?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\",\"name\":\"World leading higher education information and services\",\"description\":\"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\",\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin\"},\"description\":\"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/author\\\/kevin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A-level results: should universities lower entry grades for disadvantaged students? - World leading higher education information and services","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A-level results: should universities lower entry grades for disadvantaged students? - World leading higher education information and services","og_description":"Students from less advantaged backgrounds are grossly underrepresented in Britain\u2019s top universities. This underrepresentation of certain groups is particularly pronounced in highly competitive courses such as medicine. In England, for example, 80% of medical students come from just\u00a020% of the country\u2019s secondary schools. This leads to a profession dominated by certain demographic groups. This imbalance […]","og_url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\/","og_site_name":"World leading higher education information and services","article_published_time":"2018-08-15T20:47:30+00:00","og_image":[{"width":680,"height":454,"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/mortarhat.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kevin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kevin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\/"},"author":{"name":"Kevin","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"headline":"A-level results: should universities lower entry grades for disadvantaged students?","datePublished":"2018-08-15T20:47:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\/"},"wordCount":825,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/mortarhat.jpg","keywords":["social equality"],"articleSection":["Education"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\/","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\/","name":"A-level results: should universities lower entry grades for disadvantaged students? - World leading higher education information and services","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/mortarhat.jpg","datePublished":"2018-08-15T20:47:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/world.edu\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/mortarhat.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/mortarhat.jpg","width":680,"height":454},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/a-level-results-should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/world.edu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A-level results: should universities lower entry grades for disadvantaged students?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/","name":"World leading higher education information and services","description":"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee","name":"Kevin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kevin"},"description":"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.","sameAs":["https:\/\/world.edu"],"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/author\/kevin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44907"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=44907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}