Private school students get better degrees
They’re more likely to get a first or a 2:1 than those who went to state school
Jack CummingsEx-private school students will get better grades at uni than students who were state educated.
Even when doing the same courses at the same unis, those who paid for school are more likely to get a first or a 2:1.
The Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) found a massive 82 per cent of graduates who went to private school left with an upper class degree, compared to 73 per cent of state educated pupils.
But the company who originally released the figures got them the wrong way round, claiming that fee-paying students actually did worse when they got to uni.
The HEFCE have been accused of committing a “disturbing blunder” by giving out incorrect stats.
Private school students have something to celebrate – they do actually get better grades
The error was spotted by Professor Alan Smithers, from Buckingham University.
He claims that HEFCE fixed their figures when he told them about the error – but didn’t get round to issuing a public correction.
In an account of the mistake, Professor Smithers says: “It is extraordinary that an influential body like HEFCE should have got its figures wrong and failed to publicly rectify them after being alerted to the error.
“So long as these figures are out there uncorrected, they will continue to influence both perceptions of schools and how universities are expected to go about recruiting students.
“I call on HEFCE to set the record straight so that everyone understands the true picture.”
Headmaster of the King’s School Chester Chris Ramsey said: “This is a significant and disturbing mistake and we hope HEFCE will do more to put the record straight.”
A spokeswoman for HEFCE, the company who made the mistake, said: “We made a transposition error in our latest report on degree outcomes which we’ve corrected on our website and in social media.
She added that the stronger degree results of independent school pupils “is explained by the different distribution of A-level achievement between state and independent school graduates – independent school students on average achieve better A-levels than state school students.”