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St Andrews University said it was “utterly dishonest” to dumb down admissions requirements to create a more socially-balanced student body. Forcing universities to admit rising numbers of teenagers with lower entry grades risks setting them up to “fail”, one of Britain's most prestigious institutions has warned. In an unprecedented intervention, St Andrews University in Scotland said it was “utterly dishonest” to dumb down admissions requirements to create a more socially-balanced student body. Problems with children’s upbringing and schooling were to blame for a lack of working-class students claiming places at the country’s elite universities, it was claimed. Stephen Magee, St Andrews’ vice-principal with responsibility for admissions, said that politicians could not continue to “lay responsibility for widening access solely at the door of universities”. It represents the strongest criticism yet levelled by an individual university towards policies designed to force institutions to boost access to students from the poorest families. SNP ministers in Edinburgh are demanding that Scottish universities sign new “outcome agreements” that will see them given public funding on the condition they agree to “widen access”. It reflects a similar process in England where universities have been forced to draw up targets to boost the number of disadvantaged students admitted each year in return for retaining the power to charge up to £9,000 in tuition fees. | 
