UNIVERSITIES are today vindicated in their drive to select fewer privately educated students after government research proved that A levels underestimate the potential of state school pupils.

An official comparison of undergraduates showed that state-educated pupils gained significantly better degree results than those with the same A-level grades from independent schools.

The research, by the Higher Education Funding Council, will be used as ammunition by admissions tutors who argue that private school pupils are coached to disguise their lower ability. Some universities, such as Bristol, have been criticised for asking lower entry requirements of state school children.

The findings could revive the government anger which led Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, to attack the “absolute scandal” of Oxford University’s rejection of the highly qualified comprehensive school pupil Laura Spence in 2000.

It was also forecast that the evidence would hasten the demise of A levels, which ministers want to replace with a baccalaureate-style qualification.

“The Government has identified a huge flaw in the system,” said Phil Willis, the Liberal Democrat education spokesman. “University entry criteria have got to be widened because A levels can no longer be used as the sole predictor of a student’s potential.”

The study tracked the progress of all 18-year-old A-level students who entered degree courses in 1998 and graduated in 2001-02.

Researchers found that, on average, a student from an independent school performed the same as a state sector pupil who had up to four A-level points fewer, the equivalent of comparing three A grades with grades of ABB.

The team allowed for other factors, such as whether it is harder to gain a good degree from universities popular with independent school pupils, but concluded that “86 per cent of students from independent schools ... have a performance which can be matched, or bettered, by state schools”.

John Thompson, who led the research team, said: “There can never be complete certainty, but it now seems extremely unlikely that the lower achievement of independent school students can be explained away.”

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