Alan Milburn says introduction of written tests will result in wealthier pupils using private tutors to gain admission

Cambridge University has been accused of making its application process potentially even more of a barrier to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds after announcing it is to introduce written tests for all candidates.

The university argues it has had to introduce the new tests after the government’s A-level reforms mean many students will not sit AS-levels which have traditionally helped universities to decide whether or not to offer a place.

But Alan Milburn, the former Labour minister and chair of the Social Mobililty and Child Poverty Commission (SMCPC), criticised the move saying Cambridge risked raising further barriers to equal access with its new assessments. Other critics warned that pupils from richer backgrounds would inevitably use private tutoring to get through the tests, further disadvantaging poorer students.

Concerns about persistent underrepresentation of students from black and minority ethnic origins and disadvantaged backgrounds at Oxford and Cambridge were raised last weekend by the prime minister, who called on his alma mater, Oxford, to do more, pointing out that 27 black students out of a total intake of 2,500 went to his university in 2014.

Oxford and Cambridge condemned over failure to improve state school access Read more

The SMCPC also raised the issue in December in its annual report, which named and shamed individual Oxbridge colleges for their failure to increase the number of state school pupils studying at Oxbridge colleges.

Speaking of Cambridge’s new tests, which are set to be introduced for students seeking entry in autumn 2017, Milburn said the university’s plan to introduce entrance exams could be seen as a rational response to AS-levels being scrapped.

“But looked at through the social mobility lens, it clearly has the potential to raise a further barrier to equal access. Bright students from less advantaged backgrounds tend to miss out on the intensive tutoring their better-off peers receive.”

Milburn said the admissions team at Cambridge needed to explain how they planned to ensure the new tests would not add to that disadvantage. He also suggested there was an argument for considering delaying university applications until after A-level results.

Milburn said: “The prime minister has made clear that equality of opportunity is at the top of his priorities, and that universities are in his sights. Clearly, the government needs to redouble efforts to work with schools and universities to ensure that no bright youngsters fail for lack of coaching.

“There is now also a strong case for looking again at the arguments for delaying the university application process until after exam results. This would mean university applicants could be compared on actual results, and do away with the need for additional tests set by universities.”

Cambridge has made no secret of its concerns about the government’s decision to “decouple” AS-levels from A-levels to form a standalone qualification. The net result is that while some schools and colleges will opt to keep one-year AS-levels and teach them alongside A-levels, others will drop the qualification to focus on the two-year courses.

Cambridge wrote to all schools and sixth form colleges in November 2014 urging them to keep the qualification, arguing that for admissions AS-levels are the best predictor of how well a student will perform in every subject except maths.

In a follow-up letter emailed to UK schools and colleges on Tuesday, Dr Sam Lucy, the university’s director of admissions, said the new tests would provide “valuable additional evidence of our applicants’ academic abilities, knowledge base and potential to succeed in the Cambridge course for which they have applied”.



The written assessments, tailored to each subject, will be taken by candidates either before interview, at their school or college, or actually at interview. Anticipating concern that critics will see them as a way of screening to decide who gets invited to interviews, Lucy said: “They will form part of our holistic assessment of applicants rather than being a standalone mechanism for interview selection.”

Pre-interview tests will be held in early November on the same day as Oxford, which already carries out its own written tests, and at-interview assessments will take place during the December interview period. “No advance preparation will be needed other than revision of relevant recent subject knowledge where appropriate,” Lucy said.

Courses with pre-interview written assessments include economics, English, history and natural sciencies; courses with at-interview written assessments include architecture, history of art, law and philosophy.



“This move is a result of responding to teacher and student feedback; a desire to harmonise and simplify our existing use of written assessments and a need to develop new ways to maintain the effectiveness and fairness of our admissions system during ongoing qualification reform,” Lucy said.



Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust educational charity which works to improve social mobility, welcomed any measure to simplify the admissions procedures at Oxbridge but issued a warning.

“Cambridge should be aware that tests could present a disadvantage for low- and middle-income students as there is a thriving market in private tuition for the extra admissions tests used at Oxford and Cambridge.”

In a report to be published on Thursday, the Sutton Trust will call for the admissions processes to Oxford and Cambridge to be streamlined to improve access.

Malcolm Trobe, the interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Virtually everybody in education disagreed with the government’s decision to decouple AS-levels and A-levels, and one of the reasons was that AS-levels have been incredibly useful in predicting final A-level grades for university applications.

“Cambridge University’s decision to introduce written tests is clearly an attempt to fill the gap left by the government’s policy. Other universities will have to increasingly rely on predictions which are not guided by AS-level results and this is obviously less satisfactory for everybody involved.”

A University of Cambridge spokesman said: “We are committed to admitting the brightest students irrespective of social or educational background. Our decision to introduce common format written assessments follows A-level reforms which mean that for many UK candidates we will no longer have Year 12 public exam performance available and must therefore develop new ways to maintain the effectiveness and fairness of our admissions system.

“These assessments will give the Collegiate University more information about an applicant’s academic abilities and potential. This information will be used as part of a holistic admissions process which already considers prior academic attainment, submitted work, performance at interview and personal statements.”