Read on Twitter
“True social mobility” - a thread. How many of those lines from Michelle Donelan should be familiar? Have we heard them before? I don't mean generally - I mean specifically (but not word for word)
“The increasingly routine use of unconditional offers and contextual admissions threatens to undermine the quality of our universities and feeds the soft bigotry of low expectations in schools”
“The ASCL has said these types of offers have more to do with the frenetic scramble to put bums on seats than the best interests of students and has highlighted that those most vulnerable to such blandishments are likely to be those from disadvantaged backgrounds”
“The evidence base supporting contextual admissions does not stand up to scrutiny. Notably, a paper by Boliver et al uses flawed statistical methods … [and] has been widely cited, including, unfortunately, by the Office for Students, to justify current policies.
“[the] OfS has a statutory duty to promote equality of opportunity – and not, as some have misinterpreted it, equality of outcome. Schools such as Michaela Community School or the King’s and Exeter Mathematics Schools have demonstrated the truth of this”
“The wider question is whether a system which sees ever more young people going to higher education, increasingly to full-time, undergraduate degrees, is one that serves the wider interest of the nation, the economy or indeed young people themselves”
“The undergraduate drop-out rate has been steadily rising for several years and 34% of graduates are not in graduate jobs...The average graduate premium is in sharp decline and a third of male graduates see no, or a negative, earnings premium...
"Grade inflation is out of control.. An increase in qualifications has not resulted in a commensurate increase in skills.
“Over the last two decades, higher education has been promoted as the most desirable destination for young people. Ever since Tony Blair’s target of 50% of young people going to higher education, more people going to university has been seen as an unquestioned good”
It was all in here in January. https://policyexchange.org.uk/its-time-to-get-serious-about-rebalancing-post-18-education/
The plan? “a large-scale and whole-hearted rebalancing between higher and further education... introduction of a sector-wide numbers cap on full-time undergraduate courses, alongside freezing tuition fees for the duration of this Parliament”
