Donelan puts stress on two Es at A level for English entry bar

England’s higher education minister has indicated that the government is focused on using two E grades at A level or equivalent to set a minimum entry requirement at universities.

Michelle Donelan, answering questions from MPs on the House of Commons Education Committee, also pledged that universities would soon be expected to meet a new condition of registration on handling harassment, which she said would cover cases of antisemitism on campus.

A Daily Telegraph article headlined “No student loan for pupils who fail GCSE maths or English” appeared in February, just before the government announced plans to consult on a minimum entry requirement (MER).

The consultation said the government would consider whether a GCSE grade 4 in English and mathematics, seen as a pass, is “the appropriate threshold”. The consultation also proposed an “alternative option” to set an MER using A levels and equivalent qualifications, at a level below that of three D grades – which would impact fewer potential students than a GCSE threshold.

The issue had been “slightly misreported in the media”, Ms Donelan claimed.

She continued: “There are a number of different ways you can do this. We used to have a minimum eligibility requirement in this country until 1980, where you used to have to get, I believe, three Es.

“One of the things we’ve consulted on is individuals getting two Es at A level. Because I think this is the right thing to do.

“What we’re doing in this country is we’re pushing young people on to university courses before they are actually ready. All that does is set them up to fail.”

Ms Donelan added that “we have also said if we introduce these, we would very clearly have – which is obviously subject to the consultation, so I don’t want to pre-empt that – we would also have exemptions, [for groups] like mature students”.

Adding that exemptions could also cover part-time students, Ms Donelan said: “If you take into account those exemptions, it would have been less than 1 per cent of students that went to university this year that would have fallen into the scope of this minimum eligibility requirement.”

Asked by Robert Halfon, the committee chair, if the government would seek to fine universities not signing up to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, the minister replied that “nearly at all universities signed up”.

She added: “I have asked the Office for Students to introduce a new registration condition that will cover issues like sexual abuse, sexual assault, harassment, bullying – and it would also cover antisemitism [of] this nature.

“The repercussions of that could mean fines [for universities] of up to half a million pounds, it could ultimately mean losing degree-awarding powers.

“They [the OfS] are working on the scope and what exactly that will look like as we speak.”

Ms Donelan was asked about the case of Lord Wharton, the OfS chair and Conservative peer, who gave a video message to a right-wing conference in Viktor Orbán’s Hungary that also featured speakers who had previously expressed antisemitic and racist views.

“He wasn’t aware of who else was going to be at that conference,” said Ms Donelan.

“There was a journalist with outrageous views that attended, that he wasn’t aware of before. He didn’t endorse that journalist at all.

“And he didn’t go there in his capacity as OfS chair. He went in a personal capacity. He is, of course, a peer, and a Conservative one.”

Asked by Mr Halfon whether the University of Oxford should offer degree apprenticeships, Ms Donelan said: “It would be incredible if Oxbridge offered them. But…let’s not focus on every university being a carbon copy of the other.”

john.morgan@timeshighereducation.com