The ‘Varsity Blues’ cheating scandal in the United States, which began almost exactly two years ago to the day, is one of the most astonishing education stories in living memory. 

The rich and famous, including Hollywood actresses, hedge fund managers and a number of chief executives, paid vast sums, sometimes over a million dollars, to fraudulently boost their children’s prospects of getting into the most prestigious US universities. 

Mercifully, we are unlikely to witness a scandal of this scale and brazenness in this country. However, that does not mean all is well with our university admissions system. 

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, otherwise known as UCAS, was created in 1993, and the application system – which includes predicted grades, personal statements and academic references – has remained largely unchanged ever since. 

Yet there have been increasing concerns in recent years that applicants from poorer households may struggle to compete with other students for university places, particularly at the most popular and selective universities.  

At EDSK, we published a report in 2020 called ‘Admitting Mistakes’, which called for major changes to the admissions system because the evidence showed that wealth and privilege can indeed help you get into your preferred degree course. 

So, to give us their verdict on whether or not we should be worried about the role that money can play in our university admissions system, we are joined today by Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, or HEPI, and Dr Lee Elliott Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter. 

CLICK HERE TO BROWSE OUR PODCAST BACK CATALOGUE

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER / X