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'Seventeen universities face financial penalties for failing to be `inclusive'
By JOHN CLARKE, Education Editor
''SEVENTEEN universities were shown the red card yesterday because they were not sufficiently socially "inclusive" and another 12 were told they were at risk of being financially penalized.
All were officially identified by the Government's Higher Education Statistics Agency as admitting too many pupils from independent schools, too few from the lowest socioeconomic groups or too few from disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
In most cases, they were found guilty on all three counts.
The worst offenders - ranked by the proportion of independent school pupils they admitted two years ago - were Oxford, Cambridge, University College London (UCL), St Andrews, Imperial, Bristol, Edinburgh. London School of Economics (LSE), Exeter, Durham, King's College London, Nottingham, Newcastle, Oxford Brookes (the only former polytechnic). Leeds, Warwick and Bath.
Although independent schools educated only seven per cent of pupils, they amounted for 12.8 per cent of all university entrants and 23 per cent of those with top grades.
The universities admitting the smallest proportion of pupils from the four lowest socio-economic groups were Oxford, Cambridge. Bristol, Exeter, Durham and St Andrews.
On average, 28.4 per Cent of students at all universities were drawn from these groups, which account for nearly 50 per cent of the population of working age.
Northern Ireland, which has an academically selective school system and outperforms the rest of the UK at GCSE and A-level, had the best record of sending children from disadvantaged backgrounds to university, at 413 per cent.
In addition, 99.8 per cent of students were educated in the state sector.
The universities that performed worst on the third criteria - admitting pupils from the "low participation" neighbourhoods, where 30 per cent of young people live - were Cambridge, Southampton, Exeter, Bristol, Oxford, LSE, UCL, Imperial and Nottingham.
All drew less than seven per cent of their students from such areas, compared with an average for all universities of 133 per cent.
The 12 universities shown the yellow card for being "too middle class" were Bournemouth, Brighton. East Anglia, Lancaster, Reading, Royal Holloway, Sheffield, Southampton. Surrey. Sussex. West of England and York.
Like the 17 red-carded institutions. they can expect to mine under Government pressure to -widen access" or risk financial penalties.
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Eight institutions were identified as admirably working class: Bolton. which has just been granted university status. Bradford. Luton, Paisley, Sunderland, Ulster, Westminster and Wolverhampton.
Four of these also featured in a list of those from which students were least likely to graduate.
The 13 universities with the highest non-graduation rates were East London, 47 per cent; Napier, 46.7 per cent; London Metropolitan, 453 per cent; Bolton, 42 per cent; Abertay Dundee, 41.2 per cent; Thames Valley. 36-4 per cent: Luton, 36.1 per cent; Middlesex, 36.1 per cent; Greenwich, 35-,'. per cent; Sunderland, 33.6 per cent; Glamorgan, 33.5 per cent; Westminster. 33.2 per cent; and Central Lancashire, 33 per cent.
All are former polytechnics and are being encouraged by the Government to expand. On average, 2'2.1 per cent of students who enrolled on degree courses failed to graduate. The average drop-out rate among first-year students was 12.2 per cent, although those who abandoned their courses before Dec I were not counted.
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Institutions with a first-year drop-out rate of 20 per cent or more were. Bolton, East London. Greenwich, London Metropolitan. Napier. Paisley, Thames Valley and Westminster. All recruit heavily during August "clearing", when universities offer places to poorly-qualified applicants.
By contrast, the statistics agency identified an Ivy league of 12 academically selective universities all of which had a graduation rate of 90 per cent or more.
They were Bath. Bristol. Cambridge, Durham. Exeter. Keele, LSE. Nottingham. Oxford Royal Holloway. Wit, wick and York. All. with the
exception of Keele, were guilty in the Government's eves of being too socially exclusive.
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Seriously speaking Dr. Paul Chellakumar is absolutely excellent in his service. I personally believe no one can give better ideas than him in U.K. education. 
