Admit poorer students with three Cs, elite universities told

Having had my two children go through the trauma of A-levels and University admissions and having been teaching University students for 20 years I propose that Universties should simply admit students based on their aptitude and motivation: if they wish to read a subject then they should be given the oppprtunity to do so regardless of their A-level grades. There may be a transient period when we will have a high failure rate, but with time and effective career advisory services and work experience programmes there will a natural adjustment of student's self selection of degree programmes. I even go further to propose that we should have far fewer exams at University level than we have now; exams are a distraction that reduces the time available for learning. Exams can be even made optional: students are given a certificate of attendance but if they wish they sit say 5 exams in the key subjects at the end of the final year to obtain a degree classifcation. We should not forget the main purpose of education: to gain some knowledge and acquire skills in a subject area to enable one to do a job and contribute to society. It should not be about climbing the social ladder or used for social engineering. Prof Suleiman Sharkh

Please give me a break combining CCC students with A*A*A* is completely bonkers - it will incentivize students to do worse in their A-levels to get into elite institutions. This kind of research is not worth the paper it is written on. The numerous by-product effects of running modules for such a diverse cohort are not properly considered - a joke and we do not need this kind of nonsense.