Top students may be offered cash incentives to go to middle-ranking universities ? damaging the prospects of the less well-off
Just when you thought higher education had suffered enough damage, here comes another blow. Middle-ranking universities have revealed that they may offer A-level students with grades AAB or higher "cut-price deals" in order to compensate for the predicted drop in university applicants due to higher fees. This sadly does not come as a surprise. The latest ploy will have many negative repercussions; the greatest being that it will leave the students from low-income families worse off.
The 2009-10 figures indicate that around 56,000 students gained A-level grades of AAB or higher ? the government is forecasting that this will rise to 65,000 in 2012-11. Around two thirds of these students went to private school. If a parent has paid for their child's education for most of their life, why on Earth would they jeopardise that for a cash reduction?
For over-achieving students from low-income families such a reduction may at first seem a godsend. They will get to go to university, but save around six grand on their loans ? a great prospect, especially when you're not guaranteed a job at the end of your degree.
Proponents of such measures may also add that cash incentives could have long-term benefits for universities. By enticing over-achievers, they may increase middle-ranging universities' chances of climbing up the league tables ? providing welcome competition for those on top.
And yet, both students and universities will ultimately lose out under such schemes. Students who take up incentives may not have the reputation of their university to give their CVs an additional boost when applying for graduate jobs. What is most likely to happen is that these students will get caught in the masses of other graduates who went to middle-ranking universities. And, in the long run, it will prevent students from excelling to higher positions in certain industries, as they haven't gained a degree from an elite university.
A university's reputation is crucial when it comes to applying for your first job ? should it really be up to the students to do PR for their alma mater? Universities are ranked the way they are for a reason, due to factors such as teaching, facilities and reputation ? a cash incentive should not be used to divert a student's attention from this.
Most worryingly, the rise in gimmicks to get students to go to certain universities threatens to undermine student trust in the entire university system. From our very first day at school, my generation has been raised to subscribe to a system that values excellence and rewards it fairly. If it suddenly doesn't matter which university you get into after all, what has been the point of all those league tables and years of exams?
Cash incentives won't enable the old polytechnics to leapfrog Oxbridge overnight. All they will do is further the damage to the university system, by reducing the quality and reputation of student's degrees, and by transferring the social division in our school system to higher-education level.
Most students are not stupid, but neither are universities. Elite universities know that students will still pay the full �9,000 a year for an education, and a �2,000 reduction is a minor, almost insignificant comparison when the overall debt will be the amount of a modest mortgage. What is important is that the students from low-income families, present and future, do not sell themselves short ? the government should do more to help its most important future assets.
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