State school quotas for universities face axe following protests

By Tim Ross. Controversial admissions rules intended to force leading universities to take more students from state schools are to be reviewed after protests.
Under rules introduced last year, universities wanting to charge higher tuition fees of up to £9,000 a year are expected to recruit more low-income students, with their attendance at state school being one of the major criteria.
Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, suggested that tutors should be willing to offer places to students from state schools on the basis of lower
A-level grades than they would require from privately educated candidates. The reforms provoked protests from elite universities and leading independent schools. Head teachers accused the Government of pursuing a “Communist-style” agenda of social engineering, while about half of Britain’s leading universities boycotted the state school target this year.
Critics said it was not possible to make a “crude” judgment that the poorest pupils always attended state schools while the richest were privately educated. Read more...