A UNIVERSITY has told its admissions tutors to discriminate in favour of state school pupils at the expense of those from the private sector.

The policy is revealed in an e-mail from Professor Ella Ritchie, the pro-vice-chancellor of Newcastle University, to staff in charge of selecting undergraduates.

In the e-mail, Ritchie asked the tutors in July to give preference to students applying from state schools in cases where they have narrowly missed the required grades for a course.

The disclosure provides the first evidence that private-school pupils are being disadvantaged when competing for places against state-school students with the same grades. It also appears to contradict the university’s rules, which state that it should not attempt to socially engineer its intake.

Newcastle draws 73% of its undergraduates from the state system but it needs to increase this by 10 percentage points if it is to meet government benchmarks to boost recruitment from comprehensives.

Ritchie’s e-mail was sent to senior academics in July last year and covered the 2004 entry. It said: “When A-level results are published in August and we enter the confirmation process, please could you ask your undergraduate selectors to give particular priority, when considering ‘near-miss’ candidates, to good-quality candidates from state schools and colleges wherever possible.”

Newcastle gives more than 100 places each year to “near-miss” applicants — students who typically have dropped one grade when they were required to get AAB or BBB. The university is concerned that it might face financial penalties if it does not make an effort to achieve the government’s benchmarks.

Ritchie added: “I do appreciate that . . . it may be difficult in some areas where the real challenge is to fill places . . . However, I would be grateful if you could encourage colleagues to do what they can, particularly in subject areas which are currently far short of the relevant benchmark.

“The Higher Education Funding Council for England expects us to have around 83% of intake from the state sector.”

She said “careful consideration” should also be given to candidates from poor areas or who come from schools with weak exam results.

However, the scheme could not be extended to those applying through the clearing system. The e-mail said: “This approach is not likely to be possible for clearing candidates, as it will rarely be possible for selectors to know the school or socio-economic background of an enquirer, and it would of course be inappropriate for students to be asked for that information.”

Last month it was disclosed that the London School of Economics was operating a quota of 40 places for applicants from low-achieving state schools. But the Newcastle policy appeared to go further by favouring all state schools regardless of their academic history or intake.

Last week Geoff Lucas, academic secretary to the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference of leading independent schools, said he was opposed to the move. “It could lead to an admission tutor selecting an applicant from a wealthy background at a high-performing comprehensive in preference to a student on a bursary at an independent school.”

However, Lesley Braiden, Newcastle University’s director of recruitment, defended the policy on the grounds that it only affected a few students. “The admission tutors were looking only at ‘near-misses’, candidates who had all failed to meet the terms of their offer.

“The only areas where it might have had an impact are medicine, law, English and history, where there would have been a lot of people holding an offer and they would all have done equally well. It did not change our intake overall.”

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