The Adam Smith Institute today lays into the British university system, following the revelation that the LSE, one of the UK’s better universities, sets aside places for children from bad schools.

Being dogmatists, the ASI conclude that the only possible reason for this is government pressure, and that therefore all universities should be privatised (presumably, they also believe that they should be given hefty consultancy contracts to assist with this privatisation…)

The ASI are hopelessly, stupidly wrong here. Obviously, it’s bad that in many of the UK’s state schools, only a tiny proportion of students graduate with good A-levels. This is something which needs to be addressed at primary and secondary school level: playing with the university admission system helps kids who’ve managed to do reasonably well despite the obstacles, but does nothing about the kids who end up unable to read, write or add up.

But given the system that exists, it’s completely rational for the LSE to bring in these measures. The UK’s private school system is designed to ensure that anyone, no matter how thick, gets good enough A-levels to get into some kind of university. Even Prince Harry, who may be the thickest person alive, managed to get a B and a D, thanks to Eton’s teaching and (more importantly) it forcing him to actually do the work.

Some state schools are similar, which is why Oxford and Cambridge’s state school admissions targets are bullshit. In a state grammar school, or even a well-funded state school with an Anglophone, middle-class intake (such as this one and this one, from personal experience), there is similar pressure to perform.

However, in a school where teachers are mostly worried whether you’re going to stab people, and where the main academic focus is teaching people to speak, read and write in basic English, you need to put in the effort yourself. Individual teachers will provide help and encouragement, but the school’s overall aim is to keep order – not to advance pupils to university.

Getting ABB at A-level from the second type of school is an infinitely more creditable achievement than getting ABB from the first type of school – and it also says more about your fitness to take a rigorous and demanding university course. Unlike the Prince Harry type, who’ll probably spend the whole three years smoking dope and getting up at 2pm because nobody’s making him get up early anymore, the person with ABB from a difficult school has already demonstrated their committment to academic advancement.

Universities would be daft *not* to pay attention to this, no matter what they think of the government.