Everyone loses when universities lower their entry requirements

The UCAS deadline for the receipt of applications for university entry this coming autumn has just passed. In terms of lifetime earnings a university degree – especially a degree from a top-drawer Russell Group university – is still excellent value for money, so thousands of students now working hard to complete their sixth-form studies will soon be waiting anxiously to see if their A-Level grades match university entry requirements.

I have some bad news for them. Some of them, who reach grades that would normally have guaranteed them a place, will nonetheless have been deliberately denied an offer, just so that others – who have not done so well at A-Level – can take their place. Why? Because some of our leading universities have been bullied and cajoled into lowering entry requirements so that students who come from what are deemed to be poor, working-class backgrounds can be awarded places at these prestigious seats of learning.