University admissions tutors will be given the academic record of candidates’ schools under proposals to spot the most able pupils at poorly performing schools.

The proposals, which are under active discussion by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas), are intended to widen university entry to more people from disadvantaged families.

They have fuelled concerns that the information could be used to give unfair preferential treatment to pupils from lower-ranked comprehensives over those at the top-performing grammar and selective independent schools.

The proposals follow the introduction this year of a controversial question on university application forms, asking students whether their parents had gone to university or gained professional qualifications, which provoked accusations that the Government was penalising middle-class students at good schools.

Anthony McClaran, chief executive of Ucas, told The Times that the inclusion of school performance data on application forms would help universities to identify students with the most potential to succeed. Comparing an applicant’s performance with others in their school would enable admissions tutors to see their achievements within the proper context.

“This is about trying to identify someone who perhaps has not achieved much yet, but has shown significant potential for future achievement,” Mr McClaran said.

He said that the process of selection was holistic and was not driven exclusively by grades. “Exam results are overwhelmingly the most important factor, but the admissions officer is trying to make a judgment about the whole person, so it might be important to understand the context from which they have applied,” he said.

Mr McClaran said it was likely that the information would cover the overall exam results of a school, the number of A grades at A level, the proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals and the size of the sixth form.

He conceded that it would be difficult to apply the proposals to applicants from Scotland and Wales because they did not publish school league tables and the information was not as easily available.

The board of Ucas has asked a committee to come up with detailed plans for implementing the proposals. The board has ruled out asking for information about the religion and sexuality of candidates.

A spokesman from Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, confirmed that it was discussing the proposals with Ucas. “Universities want a full and rounded picture of each applicant so that they can accurately judge potential to succeed,” the spokesman said.

Bernard Trafford, chairman of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference of independent schools, said that it was very suspicious of the proposals.

“We are worried about admissions tutors making simplistic judgments about boys or girls going to a high--performing school and assuming that they should be doing better and therefore giving them a higher offer than a pupil from a school that does not do so well,” he said.

Many leading universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, already use a variation of the proposed system by examining the official league tables. This year the University of Oxford contacted the schools of all applicants to ask for information about the numbers of pupils in their school who gained A grades.

Mike Nicholson, director of admissions at Oxford, said that he had not received a complaint from any schools that were contacted. It would be two or three years, he said, before it was possible to judge whether school performance data was a good predictor of student potential.

“Our view is that it will give us an insight into the applicant. If you find that a school has a student who gets three As in a school where hardly anyone ever gets three As, then that may give us an indication of their potential compared with students from a school where lots and lots of people get three As,” he said.

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