State pupils lose out in university placement

London: Universities could be forced to turn away disproportionate numbers of state school pupils in the squeeze on university places after private schools cemented their domination of the top A-level grades.

For the first time, more than 50 per cent of A-levels taken by privately educated pupils scored an A compared with 20 per cent of those in state schools, widening the gap and prompting claims that attempts to break the middle-class stranglehold on entry to higher education have failed this year.

The competition for entry to degree courses this autumn is unprecedented after ministers capped student numbers to avoid a budget deficit despite a 10 per cent surge in applications.

Up to 135,000 candidates were still battling to secure a place, nearly 30,000 more than the same point last year. But the numbers available in clearing, the system used to allocate leftover places, is estimated to have halved to 22,000.

The battle for a place was made more acute by another record rise in A-levels, with a 0.8 percentage point increase in the proportion achieving an A to 26.7 per cent of the total entries. The pass rate rose for the 27th successive year to 97.5 per cent.

Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, said: "I have no doubt that the combination of factors we're seeing of a crunch on places, increased A grades dominated by private schools, and up to 40,000 losing out on the places will have a disproportionate impact on students from disadvantaged backgrounds. I have a real fear that when numbers are published later, the number of pupils from state schools will have fallen."

Some universities announced that they were full within hours yesterday. University College London, the London School of Economics, Imperial College London and Bristol closed their applications process immediately. Birmingham University had vacancies on 82 courses but by evening all but one were full.

However, the most intense activity was at universities outside the Russell Group institutions. Birmingham City University said it had taken nearly 1,000 calls since its hotline for students chasing a place opened at 6am. Coventry University had received more than 1,000 calls by the end of the day.

Ucas had received an estimated 15,000 calls by the end of today, with thousands also accessing online advice and more than a million searches on its database of courses.