The proposals to review student loan eligibility for those without A-levels raises an important question about access to higher education (Vice-chancellor calls for review into student loans for those without A-levels, 6 March). As someone who entered university without A-levels, I find the suggestion frustrating.
I graduated with a first-class bachelor’s degree in engineering from a former polytechnic and later completed a master’s degree in engineering at a redbrick university. I have also repaid my student loan in full, helped by lower fees, better repayment terms and a means-tested grant towards part of my living expenses.
Many students reach higher education through non-traditional routes and go on to succeed academically and professionally. Focusing on restricting loan access risks overlooking that reality.
Universities control admissions and can judge whether applicants can succeed on a course. If institutions believe that some students are unlikely to complete degrees, that is an admissions question rather than one that should be addressed by limiting access to student finance.
Restricting loans on the basis of traditional qualifications risks closing the door on capable students whose potential emerges later or through alternative pathways.
Paul Davies
London
• I am disturbed by Adam Tickell’s comments. For five years, I have been closely involved with Blackpool and Blackburn further education colleges, both of which deliver degree programmes on behalf of regional universities.
I have seen first-hand how students from widening participation backgrounds, often older women, have started on degree programmes with no A-levels and not necessarily any level three qualification, but with work experience in the social care sector.
These women have been dedicated to learning, have been supported by the colleges and, in many cases, progress from an average 40% grade in their first year to first-class honours grade in their final year.
These students go on to become leaders in a sector that Dame Louise Casey has pointed out is collapsing (Report, 6 March). To deny people access to a degree because they don’t have A-levels is shortsighted. Colleges offering degrees do not have Prof Tickell’s public platform or the ear of the government. However, the majority of their students do graduate, many with very good degrees.
The lack of experience at Birmingham University with non-A-level entrants should not blinker Prof Tickell to the expertise of other providers in delivering high‑quality and accessible education that provides much‑needed opportunities in many deprived areas of our country.
Dr Carolyn Downs
Morecambe, Lancashire
• Alan Tickell must realise that undergraduate degree applicants only get access to a student loan once they have actually been accepted by, and registered with a university or college, whatever qualifications they possess. So institutions like his own are the gatekeepers to loan access via acceptance to a degree course. If a university or college accepts a student of whom it is “not really capable of graduating” then it needs to look at its admission requirements and process.
David Duell
Durham
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