Universities UK’s recent proposal to expand contextual admissions to English universities is a welcome endorsement of the sector’s increasing recognition that some students face much higher barriers to university entry than others do.

As someone who, a lifetime ago, faced barriers throughout my school and college education, I also welcome UUK’s call to regularise and make more transparent the criteria and processes for contextual admissions. But we also need an expansion in our understanding of what a contextual admission actually entails.

Before going to university in 1999, I had received free school meals, lived in a two-bedroom terraced house and worked a part-time job while being the primary carer for my terminally ill single mum and two younger half-brothers – one of whom has autism.

Looking back, I can now see that I simply didn’t have the time – or physical space – to achieve academically. My predicted A-level grades were so-so, and, in the event, it was miracle I managed a B in media studies. I failed my other two subjects outright.

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The idea of going to university came out of the blue, but a hint of interest on my part was enough for my mum – who hadn’t finished secondary school – to push me to go. She saw a chance for me and was determined that I’d become the first in my family to get a degree.

Contextual admissions are usually thought of simply in terms of reduced entry requirements – “typically a grade or two lower than advertised in the course entry requirements”, according to Ucas. The admissions service also says that such an offer can include “”. But this support is essential, not optional.

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When I was admitted to university – via clearing – I found it incredibly difficult. I was overwhelmed by guilt and loneliness, living apart from the tight-knit family I had always cared for. I also struggled with a sense that university wasn’t the place for someone like me. I didn’t know the difference between a lecture and a seminar or understand the grading systems. In Pierre Bourdieu’s terms, university simply wasn’t my “field”.

Then, three months into my degree, my mum died. My half-brothers went to live with their dad, I lost my family home and was left completely alone.

At that point, I clung to my studies like a life jacket. Yet my struggles persisted, and I despair now at how little help I requested. But I was ashamed, worried my lecturers would notice how I struggled to pronounce the complex words in my set texts, realise I was an impostor and take away my life jacket.

Eventually, through reading voraciously to distract myself from the grief, I discovered I was academically capable. So, a first-class degree became my goal. My mum had struggled financially. I was determined not to do the same. She had been ashamed of not sitting her O levels. I would do a master’s – no, fuck it, a PhD. I wanted to work in universities, with kids like me.

Yet not everyone will be unlucky enough to have grief’s impetus to keep swimming even when no float is offered. And it distresses me beyond belief to think that one of my students might feel as at sea as I did.

It is true that a rebuts the idea that contextual offers inevitably set students up to fail, noting that although contextually admitted students had slightly lower pass rates and average marks than standardly admitted students, they still had pass rates of 90 per cent or more. Still, a simple points-based admission tariff, however transparent and standardisable, is insufficient.

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If universities are truly committed to social mobility and equality of opportunity, they must ensure that students receiving contextual offers receive whatever targeted assistance they need once they are admitted. Otherwise, institutions are in effect lowering standards without justification, tantamount to mere tokenism. And even underperformance relative to peers can reinforce harmful narratives of inadequacy, which underprivileged students often internalise to their detriment.

What is needed is a well-communicated, flexible, easily navigable and universally accepted set of criteria. But this is impossible to put in place in an ad hoc, piecemeal or gradual fashion. It requires careful and systematic overhaul and the taking of responsibility not only by the accepting institutions but also by local and national government.

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For instance, students without families need guaranteed year-round affordable homes throughout their academic careers, whether through student halls or council housing, rather than running up debts or having to abandon or sell off their possessions each time they become homeless at the end of term.

Of course, such measures will inevitably require further financial investment and systematic changes to university structures. But many of the changes will have wider benefits.

For instance, while the case for later start times for classes and earlier end times is strongest for students with caring responsibilities, research shows that it would benefit all students’ learning. Likewise, further childcare support from the government could benefit university staff as well as students. And higher maintenance grant provision would benefit many students; the 2024 found that on average, grants now fall short of living costs by about £500 per month.

And while disadvantaged students are at increased risk of a financial or well-being crisis, anyone who has one is likely to be adversely affected by the sector trend towards shortened terms and intensive teaching methods, since a week or two’s absence constitutes a significant and irretrievable loss of learning.

That underprivileged students’ needs are currently so overlooked speaks volumes about our archaic system’s origins. Expanding contextual admissions is a step in the right direction. But if higher education is to be a life jacket for such students, rather a millstone around their necks, they can’t just be thrown into the deep end and left to work the rest out for themselves.

is senior lecturer in cinema and television history at De Montfort University, Leicester. She is also a teaching and learning champion within her faculty, and is a pedagogic champion in the university’s Centre for Academic Innovation.

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