University entrance tests ‘set to rise’

More universities could introduce entrance exams to select the best candidates as a result of Michael Gove’s A level reforms, private school heads warned today.

The move would give pupils at fee-paying schools an advantage over state school peers because independent schools have more resources to prepare them, teachers said.

It comes after the Education Secretary announced a return to the linear A level, taken at the end of two years of study, instead of the current system under which students can take an AS level and then convert it into an A level the following year.

Leading teachers at the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC) of private schools warned admissions tutors at universities would no longer be able to use AS level scores to identify top students. They predicted more would respond with entrance tests, which independent schools can coach for.

Peter Hamilton, head of Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ school, said: “The top universities will start to do it because they have to get their hands on the best people.”

Chris Ramsey, head of the university sub-committee of the HMC and head teacher at King’s School Chester, said: “If you take actual real objective data away [AS grades] the risk is they will set more tests or it becomes more of a lottery.”