Poorer pupils’ subject choices affecting entry to elite universities

Pupils from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may be held back by their A Level subject choices when applying for elite university places, a study has found.

According to a new report from the UCL Institute of Education (IOE), those taking subjects such as law, accounting or business were less likely to attend elite universities than students with traditional academic subjects such as science, maths, languages, history or geography.

Ms Catherine Dilnot analysed information on all English students who entered UK universities with three A Levels in 2010 to 2012 as part of her doctoral work at the IOE’s Centre for Longitudinal Studies.

The research concluded that students taking academic subjects tended to go to more prestigious universities.

In addition, some subject choices seemed to disadvantage certain students – those taking law, for instance, were more likely to be at universities that scored lower on league tables if they had A-level law rather than a subject such as maths or science.

Ms Dilnot argues that although the Russell Group of universities publishes a list of useful or ‘facilitating’ subjects, students may not realise that taking subjects that are not on this list could hinder them when it comes to admission to prestigious courses at high-ranking universities.

She said: “Schools and colleges can give clear advice on A-level subject choices to those hoping to do degrees in subjects with pre-requisites: it is much harder for them to know how to advise those applying for subjects such as business and law which do not have required A-levels.”