Deadly data (1)

Widening participation means attracting students who are bright but may be ill prepared. Foundation programmes can help but are under threat because of the way the Higher Education Funding Council for England collects data.

Entry points at A level is a performance indicator for league tables. As long as students entering level 1 of a degree via the foundation route (level 0) are included in this data, universities will be reluctant to admit them because it will pull down their position.

Martin Greenhow
Department of mathematical sciences
Brunel University