Keith Burnett: Look to society for wider access to universities

Under the microscope...the University of Sheffield is identifying new ways to boost social mobility.

THE Prime Minister intends to introduce a '˜duty of transparency' in relation to university admissions and social mobility. He said he wanted to tear down the barriers in top universities and others commented on the '˜shame' of low participation from under-represented groups.

You would have to search hard in universities to find those who don’t want to remove barriers to talented students, whatever their background. But how do we do it? Is admonition enough – “Get on with it you uncaring bunch of ivory tower inhabitants!”

We do know there are some things we can’t do.

We cannot use the method that has been used in the United States, for example. Any quota system is seen as social engineering, unfair and un-British.

So what are we allowed to do?

We are told that we simply have to abandon our awful prejudices against these groups, make more of an effort and they will flow. Really?

There are many who doubt whether or not a university is really for them.

When I arrived in Jesus College, Oxford, in the early 1970s as an undergraduate from a mining valley in South Wales, I was one of them.

It wasn’t just my physical environment; it was the breathtaking confidence, both social and academic, of my independent school peers. I had to work hard to catch up with them and to realise that it really was the place for me.

But I had an advantage – excellent teaching at school by a man who had himself undertaken an MSc in physics by research and who wrote physics text books.

I had a father who valued ideas and who encouraged me to achieve my potential.

I had access to books via a public library.

These advantages are not there for everyone.

In Sheffield, our university is deeply committed to widening participation and social mobility.