Pours on petrol, lights match, and steps back ....

[Rob Clark]

So what this piece of research shows is that on average a GS or indy gets the most possible out of their students whilst they are at school, whereas a comprehensive does not always. It is therefore right and proper that unis take the sort of school into account when deciding places.

I have to agree with Cairo here. Those of you saying the problem should be addressed earlier are undoubtedly correct, in an ideal world, but until we have that world there doesn't seem to me to be anything inherently wrong with universities trying to do it.

I do agree, though, that it shouldn't be an across-the-board, automatic lower offer for children from less successful comprehensives. It should really entail interviews where the potential of such students can be expertly assessed, but with so many more children applying to university these days it seems that one-to-one interviews have become much less common. Maybe they will hav to be reinstated?