Leader: The missing recruits

Universities have long argued that widening participation in higher education is primarily a challenge for state schools and colleges. The independent schools' survey reported in our Trends report shows that in some subjects, the case is incontrovertible. If the state system does not produce candidates in areas such as modern languages and the hard sciences, how can universities recruit them? What has become accepted as the norm for "minority" subjects such as classics is beginning to spread to broader swaths of the curriculum.

Higher education can do a certain amount in its outreach activities in schools to persuade potential candidates that a degree in chemistry or German will be both enjoyable and marketable. But the survey suggests that it faces an uphill battle. Already well over half of Oxford University's applicants to study modern languages are from the independent sector - almost the same proportion as for classics - and the reduced status of languages in the national curriculum is likely to make matters worse.

Imperial College London is finding much the same in subjects such as physics. The much-maligned system of benchmarking admissions, which was introduced by the funding councils and is now operated by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, at least makes allowances for this by comparing entrants by levels of qualification. The figures must be taken into account by the Office for Fair Access for, if widening participation is not to mean levelling down, universities cannot be penalised for trends outside of their control.