State school educated gain better degrees
Research out today from the Higher Education Funding Council confirms widespread anecdotal evidence, that state school students obtain better degrees than their privately educated equivalent.
Admission tutors have long argued that private school children receive higher levels of coaching, and as a result received A level above their natural ability.
Bristol University came under sharp pressure this year from the private sector after it gave lower offers to pupils from state schools- a move denounced by the independent schools as unfair.
The research out today shows that state school children gained a better degree result than their privately educated counterparts with the same A levels.
The study tracked the progress of all 18-year-old A-level students who entered degree courses in 1998 and graduated in 2001-02.
They found that on average an independent school pupil performed the same as a state pupil who had four A level points fewer.
John Thompson, who led the research, told the Guardian that: “This is the most rigorous attempt to measure these schooling effects and to look critically at other explanations for the differences and test them.”
“There can never be complete certainty, but it now seems extremely unlikely that the lower HE achievement of independent school students can be explained away by some other factor.”
He went on: “Our view is that we have reported these facts and it is for the admissions tutors at institutions to use this evidence. Were not saying: ‘give discounted offers.’ That is for the admissions tutor’s judgement.”
