Reaching the Parts of Society Universities Have Missed

The report wants more Oxbridge places, as other universities have expanded and makes recommendations for tackling unequal access to higher education. 

Entry to Oxford and Cambridge is described as “hyper-selective” and the report suggests a practical response would be to create more places, in the way that many other universities have expanded. 

Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) show many leading universities have expanded rapidly in recent years in their undergraduate intake, some by more than 50%. 

But Cambridge has seen only a much more modest rise in first-year numbers - up by 4%. 

According to the figures from the higher education data body, Oxford has reduced its first-year intake, down by 21% over the past five years. 

Main Recommendations: 

• Encourage rigorous research on any hidden assumptions behind the content and delivery of the curriculum and examination and assessment techniques. 
• Introduce mandatory unconscious bias training for staff. 
• Appoint a Commissioner for Student Mental Health to co-ordinate a national response to the mental health crisis in our higher education institutions. 
• Ensure there is a repository for high-quality evidence on what works for widening participation and fair access. 
• Place a top priority on higher education access for white working-class boys, who are the most under-represented group in higher education, as well as white working-class girls. 
• Encourage universities to focus on employability and broader success for all groups across the student lifecycle. 
• Provide external funding for a national programme for Year 5 pupils to Year 11 pupils that helps to break some of the cultural barriers to higher education that are difficult to tackle through short-term interventions. 
• Require all institutions to include a target to improve the access, success or progression of students with experience of being in care. 
• Develop a basket of measures to support contextual admissions, target outreach activity and assist in monitoring and tracking student progress and outcomes. 
• Support widening participation targets that go beyond one Parliament. 
• Fund pilots for work connecting parents of first-generation students with parents of potential first-generation students. 
• When taking a metrics-based approach to teaching quality, use more appropriate calculations, such as progress towards closing the Black Attainment Gap. 
• Roll out access regulation via Access and Participation Plans at a subject (cluster) level akin to what is happening with the Teaching Excellence Framework. 
• Ensure care leavers are allocated a Designated Member of Staff who is not having to balance this role alongside others. 
• Guarantee mentoring support for every school and college student who wants it. 
• Promote long-term evaluation planning and encourage all universities to invest in analytic capacity. 
• Reopen the debate on post-qualification admissions. 
• Facilitate access to education through granting more fee waivers for asylum-seeking young people. 
• Ensure the Higher Education Statistics Agency mandates returns on sexual orientation and gender identity, as with other protected characteristics. 
• Urge universities to fund basic costs for those who cannot otherwise afford them, such as travel to university open days. 
• Increase articulation partnerships, forming efficient and cohesive pathways from school through college to university. 
• Encourage new Oxbridge colleges to boost the number of students from under-represented groups at our oldest, richest and most prestigious universities.
• Eradicate higher education ‘cold spots’ in England by urging universities to develop rural outreach programmes to ensure no community gets left behind. 
• Work with universities to ensure that disabled students are supported to succeed in an inclusive higher education environment. 
• Put greater scrutiny on employers to ensure they are not just attracting students from a limited list of the least diverse institutions and refusing to consider students below a certain A-Level tariff. 
• Take action to curb the surge in unconditional offers before it damages the life chances of some of the most underprivileged students. 
• Reintroduce a cap on student numbers as there is some evidence the economic gains from increasing student numbers stalled back in the mid-2000s, with hard quotas for students from working-class backgrounds at each university. 

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Reaching the Parts of Society Universities Have Missed

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