UCL- The Haves and the Have-Yachts

State school pupil? Your chances of getting into UCL in the last few years were less than if you were a couple of years older and if you have a brother or sister hoping to come soon their chances are likely to be less again.

According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, UCL admitted proportionately fewer state school pupils in the 2010/11 admissions cycle than before, along with two-thirds of other Russell Group universities.

Only 70.2% of admissions in 2010/11 were state school pupils, despite roughly 93% of children being state educated.

This comes despite Oxford, Durham, Edinburgh and Nottingham- often thought of as ‘posh’ universities increasing their state school intake.

Second year politics student Rob Birch told The Buzz that “UCL was founded on the principle of equality, yet now the management have put their own elitist prejudices before Bentham’s dream” whilst another student, who did not wish to be named said that she was “outraged”.

“Clearly people should get in on merit” she said “but the fact that four times as many independent school pupils get into UCL compared to the number in the general population is indicative of a shameful bias.”

Not everyone is so outraged however, with another undergraduate saying that he “didn’t see a problem” with students being admitted on merit, regardless of the school they went to.

“The real outrage,” he said, “would be if we lowered standards to pander to political correctness”.

The problem remains however that if state school admissions don’t meet government targets by the time £9,000 fees are introduced there will be restrictions on charging those fees to some pupils. A failure in this regard could well leave UCL management with egg on their faces.