Willets Wants A-Level “Blacklist”

Universities Minister David Willets has revealed that in the future all unis will be forced to reveal their A-level “blacklists”.

Unis will be made to publish a list of courses that they think are “soft” as part of new coalition policy.

Willets hopes that the move will improve social mobility and give kids from tough comprehensives a better chance of going to the best unis.

At the moment, many students are unknowingly shut out from the top institutions for studying subjects such as: Media Studies, Dance and Psychology.

Willetts said: “Young people need to know if there are banned subjects. It is far better this information is out there rather than secret.”

Currently, only a few institutions reveal their A-level “blacklists”, including our very own Trinity College, Cambridge.

Trinity’s website warns prospective applicants to steer clear of subjects such as: Accounting, Citizenship, Photography and ICT, saying they are only appropriate as a 4th subject.

Ben Shaw, a 2nd year Comp Sci from John’s, agreed with Trinity’s choices: “ICT is pretty gash – my school didn’t even offer it.”

LSE and Sheffield also currently give guidance on what A-Levels to avoid.

It’s expected that the requirement to publish “blacklists” could come into force under new higher education legislation likely to be introduced in 2012.