Letter from London Widening participation debate There is a specially positive feeling at the beginning of the academic year when university corridors and canteens are full of apprehensive first year students, and there is the whiff of fresh polish and enthusiasm. Meanwhile news-papers are busy analysing a barrage of statistics — how many students are from state (non fee-paying) schools, the numbers from European countries, how many from ethnic backgrounds and how many applied this year to avoid the higher top-up fees payable from next year. The picture that emerges is that admissions are up on last year, which is good news for prime minister Tony Blair as he strives to achieve his goal of persuading 50 percent of young school leavers to press on for higher education. Not so encouraging is data which indicates that the proportion of students from state schools entering university has fallen for the first time in five years, a finding which will undoubtedly disappoint the prime minister who is trying to widen access to higher education. Widening participation is crucial to universities, to meet government targets and increase student numbers. This makes the maintenance of high academic standards difficult as universities have to take on students who may not have traditional A level qualifications. They know that if they take the risk of admitting ‘non traditional students’ i.e from working class backgrounds with no family history of higher education, ethnic minorities with English as a second language, and more mature students, intake percentages from state schools and university dropout rates are likely to increase. Quite obviously it’s not just a matter of enrolling higher numbers of students, it’s also important to retain them until they complete their degree programmes. Recently published statistics indicate that dropout rates among first year university students are rising. The number of students quitting after the first year rose from 7.3 percent of intake in 2001 to 7.8 percent in 2002, an increase of nearly 1,800. A further 1,000 mature students also quit during the same period and some universities had shocking dropout rates of more than 15 percent. What the statistics reveal are broad differences between institutions, some still managing to reduce dropout rates while recruiting a high proportion of working class and mature students. Graduation percentages vary depending on the subject, and confirm the close link between A-level grades and the successful completion of degree courses. As one might expect, the higher the grades the more likely that students will stay the course in university. Statistics indicate that medical schools, which demand very high grades, experience an average dropout of only 1.8 percent while architecture, building and planning, engineering and technology institutes lose more than 10 percent of enrolled students. This data is grist for the mill in debates about widening participation, the aspirations of students, their families, schools and universities. (Jacqueline Thomas is a London-based journalist/ academic) United States Evolution teaching row President George Bush has added new fuel to the debate over teaching evolution in schools by suggesting…
