Letters From A Tory Daily views on British politics and the Conservative Party from a centre-right thinker who writes letters on his blog to politicians, journalists and many others.

Dear UCAS,

As the body that oversees all higher education applications in this country, the responsibility for sorting out the problems with access to the top universities is yours.  Independent schools are now five times more likely to reach the Russell Group universities (which includes Oxford and Cambridge) than state school pupils, leading some to claim their is a social class bias in universities.

The government is clearly obsessed with pursuing the myth of equality in education, but there is no justification for getting involved in this.  John Denham, the Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary, has accused the top universities of “social bias” against the working-class, while ministers have been accused of “social engineering” and a bias against independent schools – and they’re probably both right.  More private school pupils getting into top universities is no cause for alarm IF they are the most able students as I am a firm believer in a meritocracy, but any intervention on the part of the government to help state schools would most certainly be social engineering.

Here’s a solution – how about making your application system anonymous, as I suggested in my Education paper on this blog (‘My views on education’)?  All personal details are withheld from the universities including which school they attend, so that all candidates are judged on merit alone?  Why are you so stuck in the past when a simple alteration could end this debate once and for all?

Yours despairingly,

A.Tory