Leading article: No use at all

We return this week to the subject of the new benchmarks showing the proportion of state school pupils each university should be taking.

We return this week to the subject of the new benchmarks showing the proportion of state school pupils each university should be taking. Universities such as Oxford, Cambridge and UCL claim that the methods used to calculate the benchmarks are flawed, and they are therefore of no use in improving access. They have a point. The leading universities need to base their recruitment on A-level grades, not UCAS points. Unless the Higher Education Funding Council working party on performance indicators looks again at this subject, the benchmarks will lose credibility - and be unhelpful into the bargain.