A report released yesterday, claimed universities could be violating human rights if they discriminate against independent school pupils when awarding places.



The report, by education expert Professor Alan Smithers of Buckingham University, warns that positive discrimination by universities in favour of applicants form state schools was ‘inherently unfair’. The Human Rights Act precludes discrimination and considering school type when assessing candidates clearly challenges the laws interpretation.



“It is difficult to see how positive discrimination on one characteristic can be against the law, while it can be advocated in another,” said Professor Smithers. Furthermore, in his opinion there is no need for discrimination as “the system seems to have evolved in a way that is fair to the individual candidates.”



The report was commissioned by independent schools concerned by, amongst other things, the acknowledgement by universities including Bristol, Cambridge and Exeter that they offer some state school students places on lower A-level grades.



Of equal concern to independent schools is the advent of state school ‘targets’ that universities must reach, or run the risk of losing the ability to charge the £3,000 top-up fees. It was revealed last week that both Oxford and Cambridge missed these targets for admitting a certain proportion of candidates from state schools, which therefore puts them on a tightrope as far as funding goes.



A further interesting finding from Professor Smithers’ report was that boys from Britain’s top fee paying schools do comparatively badly at university. The report puts forward the theory that students from high-income families already have a certain degree of financial security and are therefore not as highly motivated.



“For male students, but not female students, there was some association between the level of the fee charged by the independent school and degree performance.”