While universities in Scotland use the same methodology to assess whether a pupil is disadvantaged and should be given a leg up, in the rest of the UK every university has its own system. He added: “Students need to have clear information on whether they might be able to benefit from a contextual offer, so they can make an informed choice about next steps.” Free school meal data examined The findings came on the same day that the head of Ucas, the UK’s university admissions service, said that disadvantaged students had effectively been “put first” by universities making offers this year.Ĭarl Cullinane, the director of research and policy at the Sutton Trust, said universities need to be “transparent” about how they use information for so-called “contextual offers”, where factors such as what school someone went to influences how likely they are to get a university place. The Telegraph revealed this week that teenagers from the most affluent backgrounds are the least likely of any group to have received a university offer ahead of A-level results day for the first time on record. Universities must be transparent about how they use information to prioritise disadvantaged students, a leading education charity has said.

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