Civic universities should offer places to all locals who make the grade

Civic universities do many things for their local communities. But they could do a lot more.

My challenge to them is to identify the facilities they have that their community needs and throw them open. Those could be libraries and wi-fi. They could be classrooms for the local University of the Third Age to use in evenings or vacations. Vacations are the time to offer sports, arts and drama facilities, or halls of residence for those in need.

No door should be left closed without the strongest possible reason. And wherever possible, access should be free – most of these facilities cost nothing at the margin. Where possible, sponsorship from local employers and charities can be sought. When you do the right thing, money can often be found.

But universities can and should go further still, taking open access right to the heart of their core purpose: education. And I don’t mean lectures for local interest, important though these are. I mean access to degree courses.

Most newer universities have a strong local presence. Almost half the students at Sheffield Hallam University, for instance, live in greater Sheffield. Most commute from home. That is not for everyone but it is an important option for many, particularly those from poorer backgrounds. But all civic universities, new and old, should make a blanket offer of a place to any local child who gets the relevant grades for the relevant course, without the need to write a personal statement and the other stuff that is currently required.

Of course, we have to be a little careful here. This proposal could not cover medicine, because the government limits the number of places. Similarly, if Oxford said that anyone who lived in the city and got AAA was guaranteed a place, a lot of well-off people with academically able children would surely move to Oxford, making access largely determined by parental wealth.

That said, neither Oxford nor Cambridge has ever claimed to be a civic university, so let’s put them to one side. We also need to be careful in London – no university could offer unconditional places to the city’s 40,000 annual school-leavers – but London universities could cooperate to ensure good local access.

This idea would work well elsewhere. Liverpool, for example, has about 2,500 sixth-formers a year, while Sheffield has 2,000. The universities take roughly 6,000 and 5,000 UK undergraduates a year respectively. Since not all local sixth-formers will want to go to their local university or will get the grades, such universities could have an open access local offer without any difficulties in providing the relevant number of places. We also all know that most selective universities currently reduce grades to fill their final places – so winning over more local students who actually have the grades would strengthen their intakes.

Imagine being a teacher talking to a capable student from a non-traditional background in Newcastle who doesn’t know any graduates and is unsure whether university is for them. Imagine being able to say: “I can guarantee that if you get the grades, Newcastle University will take you.” The academic literature tells us unambiguously that ease of entry encourages access. Sometimes that conversation between teacher and pupil will be enough.

Even if it isn’t, if the sixth-former achieves the relevant grades, on results day the teacher can say, “We, your school, will certify that you got the grades and live in the city. All you need to do is click ‘send’ and you have a place for this year.” Some students will be willing to take that step – a step that has no possibility of rejection. It would change lives.

There will be questions, of course, about where town and city boundaries should be. But let us not make the best the enemy of the good. Let the sector find a selective civic university willing to stand up and be counted, willing to pilot this. Their education and statistics department can calculate how many people in an area typically get these grades. If it seems too risky, start small and do this only for students who have been eligible for free school meals. Or restrict it initially to students from a tightly defined area.

Then civic universities should go further and interrogate national databases to find how many students in their local communities had the grades but attended either no university or attended a much less selective university, typically leading to lower-paid jobs and fewer career options. They should then convene such students and ask them what would have persuaded them to take up the offer of a place. More information? More part-time courses? Bursaries? Different courses? Degree apprenticeships? Good qualitative survey work – sometimes termed immersive research – will be key to understanding what works.

Every student at every local school – and their parents – should be able to see a route to university in their community. A route that is easy to explain and can be plastered all over local bus stops: “Get the grades, get a place.”

This is what it means to be a civic university: in your community, of your community, for your community.

Tim Leunig is visiting professor in practice in the School of Public Policy at the London School of Economics. This is an edited version of his contribution to The Kerslake Collection: The future of universities and their places, five years on from the UPP Foundation Civic University Commission, edited by Sir Chris Husbands and Richard Brabner and published on 10 July.