UCAS accused over dropouts

University admissions chiefs should do more to safeguard the hundreds of millions of pounds of public money wasted on university dropouts, a backbench committee of MPs said this week.

But Universities and Colleges Admissions Service chief executive Tony Higgins admitted to a special session of the education and employment select committee that his goal of a post-qualification admissions system, which it is widely believed would dramatically cut the number of dropouts, was "impossible to introduce".

Committee member and Liberal Democrat education spokesman Phil Willis accused UCAS of being "incredibly unadventurous in terms of adding value to the higher education system". He asked Dr Higgins if he felt any responsibility for the Pounds 250-Pounds 350 million wasted each year through the one-in-five students who drop out of higher education.

Dr Higgins conceded that "far too many people drop out" and said UCAS had commissioned research into the reasons. "It would be far better if people applied to go into higher education after receiving their qualifications," he said. "Not only will they be sure of their academic capabilities, but they are older and more certain.

"But at the moment it appears that with the school and academic years, it would be impossible to introduce."

He said UCAS was now looking at a system where students could apply for university places after receiving the results of the new AS levels to be introduced next year. Dr Higgins rejected MPs' suggestions that the clearing system - described by Conservative MP Nick St Aubyn as more chaotic than "a trading room in the City" - exacerbated the dropout problem. But he agreed that in some cases, taking a year out could improve students' satisfaction from higher education decisions.

Dr Higgins was also accused of failing to help widen participation, serving primarily 18-year-old school-leavers and failing to properly assist mature and part-time students.