Make the white working-class an ethnic minority, says minister

David Willetts said white, working-class teenage boys should be categorised alongside ethnic groups and those from disadvantaged communities when universities look to attract students.

The Universities Minister’s suggestion comes against a backdrop of a sharp fall in the number of university applications from men.

Mr Willetts said the Office for Fair Access (Offa), the university access watchdog, “can look at a range of disadvantaged groups – social class and ethnicity, for instance – when it comes to access agreements, so I don’t see why they couldn’t look at white, working-class boys”.

He said he would suggest the inclusion of white, working-class boys as a target group for recruitment in university access agreements, which universities have to sign to gain permission to charge higher fees, in a meeting with Offa director Professor Les Ebdon.

An Offa spokeswoman told the Yorkshire Post, however, that several universities including Leeds Metropolitan University already do this.

Leeds Met launched a scheme to help attract more white, working class boys into higher education in 2008 after a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation warned about low attainment among this group.

It was extended two years ago to include all working-class boys because of concerns that the scheme was too small and would be more cost-effective if more pupils were involved. It has received funding from both the university and Leeds entrepreneurs Terry George and Michael Rothwell for the past two years and talks about its future funding are ongoing.

The scheme is currently run in five Leeds schools: Bruntcliffe, Leeds West Academy, Pudsey Grangefield, Morley Academy and Swallow Hill Community College.

Schools are asked to identify up to 25 boys aged 14 from low-income backgrounds with the potential to achieve at least five good GCSEs including English and maths. Leeds Met then works with them over the next four years to help them improve their skills and give them a taste of university life.

Chris Morley, Leeds Met’s widening participation projects officer, said: “We have had getting more working-class, white boys to university in our minds for some time and it has been part of our access agreements for years.”

Figures from last autumn’s intake show a 54,000 fall in the number of men applying to university, which is 13 per cent down on 2011 and four times higher than the reduction in female applicants. Just 30 per cent of male school-leavers applied for a university place in 2012, compared with 40 per cent of female school-leavers, according to Ucas.

Mr Willetts claims this was “the culmination of a decades-old trend in our education system which seems to make it harder for boys and men to face down the obstacles in the way of learning... That is a challenge for all policymakers and parties.” He added: “I do worry about what looks like increasing under-performance by young men.”

Dr Wendy Platt, director general of the Russell Group, which represents 24 top universities including Leeds, Sheffield and York, said: “Universities cannot solve this problem alone. The root causes of the under-representation of students from disadvantaged backgrounds are under-achievement at school and poor advice on the best choices of A-level subjects and university degree course.”

Mr Willetts said he was keen to protect universities’ rights to select students but said he wanted to make sure white, working-class boys had every opportunity for a fair shot at a place.