Policy strikes at heart of principle of merit

As a University of Edinburgh graduate, I ought to be pleased that the university has decided retrospectively that the fact I attended a state school near Edinburgh, and that I was the first in my family to attend university, ought to have entitled me to some preference in admissions. But I am far from pleased, since this policy strikes at the heart of the principle of merit.

Once introduced in other countries, such admission preferences have never been dismantled, even when the original justification for them no longer applies. In India, for instance, the original "temporary" efforts to widen social access in the 1950s have now evolved into an ever-expanding system of admission preferences in which 70 per cent of university places in many states must go to members of designated "backward" social groups, regardless of how poorly they perform in university admission examinations.

Eventually, of course, the scale of such preferences becomes so large that the universities are forced to re-define the whole principle of merit and academic attainment in order to avoid having too many students fail.

I fully support the goal of widening access by giving adequate grants to students whose examination re-sults qualify them for admission on merit, but who would otherwise lack the money to attend.

Charging relatively high fees and then using the money earned to give scholarships to students from poorer backgrounds would be one good way to do this. But altering the admissions criteria based on the university’s patronising notion of the perceived obstacles that individuals have had to overcome while growing up is not the way to achieve this goal.

STEVEN I WILKINSON

Durham

North Carolina, USA

As a first-year student at the University of Edinburgh, I think the new admissions policy is fantastic and should be adopted by many other institutions. Most people seem to think it is terrible that those with the best grades and best performance at school will not be as certain to get a place, but it gives those with the potential to get a good degree the chance of doing so.

All universities want to admit those they think will get the best degree. What Edinburgh has realised is that many factors need to be taken into consideration, other than merely a previous academic performance, in assessing someone’s potential of gaining a good quality degree.

It makes sense that those who have been provided with the best education money can buy are going to have better grades on average from high school. Does this mean they are more deserving of a place at university than a state school pupil who didn’t do so well but, perhaps, could have done even better if educated to the same level? I don’t think so.

JIM GALLAGHER

Millerfield Place

Edinburgh