Uni entry req reduced if 'educationally disadvantaged home'?

[52andblue]

So Ds has come home today and said that the ASD support teacher at his (mainstream) High School has told him that 'if neither of his parents went to Uni then he comes from an educationally disadvanted home' and that his entry requirement grades might be adjusted down?

Can this be correct? I can imagine there might be consideration for his ASD, or his Dyslexia (as they both affect the level of educational attainment he may achieve despite a very high IQ) or if he comes from an economically deprived area but parental education levels?

Has he misunderstood ? (easiest thing would be to get in touch with teacher and ask but thats a whole other story...)

I think I got additional funding for being the first in my immediate family to go to uni so he may well be right

Many universities have contextualised offers. But they are usually related to home postcode or school and not simply to parents’ education levels.

I’ve never heard of a parent being asked to prove that they have not been to university. Because it’s quite hard to prove a negative.

I've known kids who got onto one of the mentoring programmes to help and support the pupil through the whole process of choosing course, application, personal statements, Uni tours, SAAS etc (it's called LEAPS in Lothian) as they were 1st in family to go to university.
But they didn't get acontextualised offers, That's usually dependent on the postcode and attending a school which has low numbers going on to university.

He needs to get more information from the teacher though as there may be specific university that offers this.

Sounds possible
www.ukuniversitysearch.com/blog/post/what-are-contextual-offers#:~:text=The%20purpose%20of%20Contextual%20Offers,Who%20is%20eligible%3F&text=First%20generation%20higher%20education%20students,from%20low%20socio%2Deconomic%20groups

Different universities include different things as part of their contextualised offers. It's meant to level the playing field for all sorts of factors. That could be which school, where you live or whether you come from a family where there might be no history of university attendance. Some will use a mix and prioritise different factors.

If you Google X University contextualised offers, it should tell you on what basis they would apply.

@ecceromani

I've known kids who got onto one of the mentoring programmes to help and support the pupil through the whole process of choosing course, application, personal statements, Uni tours, SAAS etc (it's called LEAPS in Lothian) as they were 1st in family to go to university. But they didn't get acontextualised offers, That's usually dependent on the postcode and attending a school which has low numbers going on to university.

He needs to get more information from the teacher though as there may be specific university that offers this.

I know an applicant who attended a good state school but was care experienced so was able to get into a similar widening access programme in Tayside called REACH . They did get a contextualised offer ( which they didn’t need in the end ) and a place.

However they had to prove that they had been in care and supporting information from their school.

Usually the universities continue to monitor the progress of these students throughout their university career, so they can prove that they are not admitting a lower calibre of applicant to these high demand courses. The evidence so far seems to be that in fact these students in general do considerably BETTER than average on their courses.

AFAIK Scottish universities have a target of 20% of their pupils to come from non traditional backgrounds . I don’t know if this is all courses or just high demand ones ( medicine, dentistry, vet med, law) .

Yeah it's contextualised offers. Criteria will vary between institutions but we look at postcode and if it's from a lower classed statistical group called Polar4, then we can make contextual offers. It is tricky though because if predicted grades are high enough to meet the UCAS tariff, admissions tutors don't want to undermine that and potentially sour relationships with FE providers.

It's called 'First in Family' and is a thing in some cases.

Universities are understandably cautious about parents / applicants gaming the system.

For example I know a pupil at a private school who didn’t get the required grades for medicine in 5th year. Their parent ( who was a university teacher ) then enrolled her in one of Scotland’s most deprived schools in the same city for 6th year.

However the girl never actually attended this new school as unfortunately she developed school anxiety so she was tutored at home. She then applied for a contextualised offer from that deprived school and was accepted.

So now the universities have amended their criteria to take account of where the Pupil sat their nat 5s and highers and not just where they attend when they submit their UCAS form.

This makes me think that they will be very wary of giving contextual offers to applicants simply on the ( fairly unprovable ) assertion that their parents didn’t go to university.

What about step parents ? What If a parent went to university overseas ? How will anyone check ? What about the kids who can’t even get a fiver out of their NRP but now they need him to prove that he didn’t go to university ?

What about all the kids at private schools whose wealthy parents are in business of some kind but didn’t go to university ? Do they deserve such an offer more than the kids of single mum who is a nurse but can’t work because she is disabled / a carer so is in a council flat in a bad area ?

It’s a minefield IMO.

Okay thanks.
I will see if I can get him to find out more.
I've looked at various Uni's sites and there isn't a great deal of info.

'gaming the system' is completely indefensible imo when there are kids like mine who have been disadadvantaged in every way.
If he was given any sort of adjustment at this stage it would never level the playing field for him after the total lack of support since P1.

I think after the government intervened over unconditional offers, unis won't necessarily advertise this. Email course leaders or admissions to get accurate info .

@Mumteedum

I think after the government intervened over unconditional offers, unis won't necessarily advertise this. Email course leaders or admissions to get accurate info .

I thought that just applied to English Uni's/results since most Scottish students applying for Scottish Unis will be applying with their actual Higher results? Obviously not all though.

Yes you're probably right. I wasn't thinking. Post vaccine ill today so head doesn't work

Hope you feel better soon,

Thanks @ElephantOfRisk