Michael Arthur: A degree of change needed for students to make the grade

Leeds is a member of the Russell Group which includes some of the UK’s best universities such as Oxford, Cambridge and most of the large civics, and our students face stiff competition to earn a place here.

We received around 50,000 applications for just over 6,500 undergraduate places this year, showing just how much students and their families value a degree from Leeds.

Faced with such competition, it’s vital that school pupils choose both the right A-levels (or equivalent) and achieve good grades to secure a place on the course of their choice.

Getting the right advice and guidance at the right time and relating this to later career options is crucial. University is not for everyone, but for those that do want to go onto higher education, a guide called Informed Choices produced by the Russell Group (which I currently chair) gives a clear picture about which subjects pupils should study to help them get into a selective university like Leeds.

In brief, this guide suggests that students wishing to keep their options wide open for entry into a Russell Group university should take at least two of their three A-levels in “facilitating subjects”, which include English language and literature, mathematics and further mathematics, chemistry, biology, physics, the languages, history and geography.

A-levels in other subjects have their own intrinsic value, but we indicate that choosing more than one of these may limit your choice of university courses at a later stage.

At Leeds, we are focussed on academic excellence, for which we make no apology. Our strategic intent is to have a significant impact on society and our economy through the quality and contribution of our graduates and scholars as well as our contribution to research and innovation.

We have a major strategic focus on the integration of our research and education and if you study with us, we expect you to become involved in the creation of knowledge through research, acquiring skills along the way that will be highly relevant later in life and for your subsequent employment.

We therefore demand good grades from our students, and depending on choice of degree, we often prefer the “facilitating” A-level subjects to others, because we know from experience that our students need a good grounding in these subjects to succeed on certain courses.

I also believe we must do everything we can to ensure university is available to all who have the talent to benefit from it, regardless of background.

We have special access schemes for students to demonstrate their potential and gain entry, as well as a package of bursaries, fee waivers and scholarships to help those in need of financial support. We are doubling the amount we invest each year to support access to £16m.

Universities have a responsibility here and we take that extremely seriously. We have a comprehensive outreach programme and work closely with schools in the region, helping youngsters from less well-off backgrounds, who we know have the talent to come here, but who may need support to help realise their dream.

But if all of this is to become increasingly effective, we should remain alert to the fact that attainment at school is the single most important factor for gaining a place at a leading university.

We must focus as a society on ensuring that our secondary school system is resourced and supported to deliver on that agenda.

Changes in the effectiveness of our state-funded secondary school system in particular are much needed. There have been many successes in recent years, but there’s still a long way to go.

The Coalition government’s approach is clearly different, but the jury will be out for some time on whether the latest ideas, such as Free Schools, will take off.

There’s always a tendency for successive governments to look for quick wins, but perhaps we should also focus on some key principles and try to think in an integrated way across the different levels of education. My particular interest is on the interface and interaction of secondary and higher education.

It is my view that our secondary education system, perhaps fuelled by the emphasis on schools league tables and measures such as “percentage of pupils gaining five GCSEs at grade A-C”, has become centred more on “assessment” than on “education with deep learning”. How often do we hear the cry “Just tell me what I need to know to pass the exam!”

Schools have, not surprisingly, had a relative vested interest because of the importance of such league tables in determining their success in the eyes of parents and government and in determining their subsequent resource envelope.

We need to think beyond that simplistic analysis of the quality and success (or otherwise) of a school and to ensure that any new measures are carefully considered and evaluated and devoid of any unintended consequences.

The current Education Secretary, Michael Gove, has sought to address concerns about the existing league table culture in part through the English-Baccalaureate or “E-Bacc”, which assesses how many pupils achieve a good GCSE in traditional subjects – English, maths, two sciences, a language and a humanity.

I understand the thinking behind the E-Bacc (although its introduction could perhaps have been handled better) and like the emphasis on GCSEs that are relevant to the “facilitating subjects” at A-level that are so relevant for entry to universities like Leeds. If we moved away from a system of repeated and intensive assessment, we might also be able to reconsider the current emphasis on the excessively modular style of learning in our schools and introduce more opportunity for critical independent thinking and self-directed learning.

This would allow students the inspirational excitement of exploring the limits of knowledge in a field that is of intense personal interest to them.

Progress has been made to address this, most notably the Extended Project, designed to encourage students to learn and work independently, alongside their A-level studies.

I believe that this is a much better preparation for the style of education that they will be exposed to at university and that will be critically important in helping our young people become creative and innovative problem solvers, of value to the society in which they will live and work.

Professor Michael Arthur is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds.