We need to widen participation in higher education

David Willetts has called for “real change” in order to widen participation in higher education.

The Shadow Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary praised a new report from the National Council for Educational Excellence (NCEE) for focusing on the current problems, but stressed its recommendations had not gone far enough:

“We have promised a new all-age careers service with a careers adviser in every school. We have proposed an ambitious new route to higher education through Skills Scholarships for apprentices. And we have shown why the Government’s programme for promoting higher education, AimHigher, needs to provide earlier, more sustained and more integrated support.”

Analysis produced in the summer showed that better advice is crucial to encourage wider participation in higher education - currently, one-third of all A-Level entries are in subjects that universities value less.