A vice-chancellor who questioned whether students with no A levels should receive tuition fee loans has been criticised for his “dangerous” comments by staff at his own university, who have accused him of “gatekeeping” higher education at the expense of “less advantaged students”.

Adam Tickell, who has led the University of Birmingham since 2022, recently made headlines after arguing for a review of higher education funding in England, claiming that the current system is “just not working” for students, universities or taxpayers.

That review should consider whether students “without a single A level or equivalent” should get access to the student loan book, Tickell told the British Academy’s Shape conference on 4 March.

“We’re investing so much money in people who…we are not really capable of graduating,” continued Tickell, referring to the higher level of student loan write-off for those enrolling at lower-tariff institutions.

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Those comments – first reported by ����Vlog – have, however, been strongly criticised by Birmingham’s University and College Union (UCU) branch, which claimed his statement was “dangerous”.

“Using the funding crisis as cover, he reaches for the oldest institutional reflex under financial pressure: gatekeeping less advantaged students,” UCU says in a statement.

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“Birmingham UCU believes that restricting access to student loans based on A‑level status would significantly worsen existing inequalities in higher education and in the wider region,” it continues, adding that “students who come to university without A-levels are disproportionately working‑class, care‑experienced, disabled, mature and from racially minoritised communities, including those progressing via BTECs, access courses, foundation years and other non‑traditional routes.”

“Closing off loan eligibility to these routes would hit hardest those who already face the greatest barriers to education and good quality employment,” it adds.

The union adds that it “rejects the implication that students entering through non‑traditional pathways are not really capable of graduating”.

“A‑level outcomes are not a neutral measure of ability; they reflect deep‑seated inequalities in schooling, income, geography and racism rather than innate potential. Turning A levels into a hard gateway for loan access would lock in the effects of earlier disadvantage and transform structural inequality into a formal barrier to university participation,” it adds.

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Criticising the “damaging deficit narrative that some students are a ‘bad risk’ and less deserving of public support”, the union adds that “this framing risks legitimising a more stratified higher education system in which only already‑advantaged young people are seen as worthy of state-backed loans, while others are pushed into lower‑status or more expensive alternatives”.

Acknowledging the “real pressures created by an unsustainable higher education funding model” highlighted by Tickell – who argued that “we have a system where more state money goes in, students are more indebted and universities are on the brink of failure” – the union responds that the “answer cannot be to ration opportunity by narrowing who is allowed access to loans”.

“More equitable approaches would include properly funding teaching and support services, improving maintenance support, reforming repayment terms, and investing in foundation years, access programmes and in‑study academic and well-being support to improve completion rates,” it says.

“That is how universities remain at the heart of society rather than retreating into finishing schools for the already-privileged,” it adds, calling on the university “to distance itself from any policy changes that would restrict loan access for students without A‑levels” and work towards finding “funding reforms that tackle, rather than entrench, educational inequality”.

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jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com