DFEE names access underachievers

The Department for Education and Employment has named the institutions that will get extra cash for making a special effort to recruit from state schools. The institutions enrol relatively few students from poor backgrounds.

The move was among measures announced yesterday by prime minister Tony Blair to increase access for students from poor backgrounds. Universities that recruit students from poor neighbourhoods will be better rewarded, and those that do not will receive extra cash to raise their performance.

A third of young people live in poor neighbourhoods, but they account for only 12 per cent of undergraduates nationally. Universities that recruit them will get 10 per cent more funding per student.

According to the DFEE, the institutions that under-recruit most from state schools are: the universities of Oxford and Cambridge; University College London; University of Bristol; London School of Economics; Imperial College, London; School of Oriental and African Studies; University of Durham; King’s College, London; University of Newcastle; Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, London; the universities of Exeter, London, and Nottingham; Homerton College, Cambridge; the universities of Birmingham and Leeds; Oxford Brookes University; the universities of Manchester and Warwick; Queen Mary Westfield College, London; UMIST; City University and the universities of Reading, Southampton, York and Bath.