THE top universities are being pressed to operate a new admission system that would favour poorer students from state schools.

Youngsters at inner-city comprehensives who do better at A level than their teachers predict would have a second chance to impress admissions tutors.

The move forms part of proposals for an overhaul of the university applications system set out by the Government today. Bill Rammell, the Higher Education Minister, told The Times that it would make admissions fairer.

“The research-intensive universities could hold back a proportion of their places if they want to get the best students,” he said. “The evidence is that there are some very good students from the poorest backgrounds that they currently don’t get because they overperform, based on their predicted grades.”

The proposal is certain to revive accusations that the Government is mounting a renewed attempt at social engineering to push elite universities to alter their intakes. Teenagers at independent and grammar schools predicted to get top grades in their exams would be competing for fewer places if admissions tutors held back a proportion of offers for youngsters who may not even have applied at that stage.

Rejected students would be eligible to reapply if they achieved their grades but universities would be far more likely at that stage to favour candidates from poorer backgrounds who had confounded their teachers’ predictions.

Admissions tutors use application forms that contain predictions of candidates’ likely A-level grades. Mr Rammell said that just 45 per cent of grade predictions were accurate and the system was least fair to the poorest students. “It is clear that predicted grades are not giving the most accurate information on which to base university admissions,” Mr Rammell said. “The evidence is that it is the poorest students in terms of background whose performance is most at variance with their predicted grades.”

Oversubscribed universities in the Russell Group expect candidates to have very high grades, so students with lower predicted grades are usually rejected, if they apply at all. By the time youngsters discover their actual grades, the best universities are already full. Their schools also encourage them to play safe and apply to less prestigious universities to avoid having to seek places in clearing.

A consultation document by the Department for Education and Skills on proposed changes to university applications for 2008-09 highlights research by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. It concluded that schools accurately predicted grades for 51 per cent of pupils in the highest social class, but for only 39 per cent of the poorest youngsters.

If accepted, the changes would pave the way either to a full or partial switch to a so-called post-qualification application system by 2010-11.

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