More UK universities are using personal and extra information - not just grades - to decide which students get places, a report suggests.

Paul Clark, from Universities UK, which represents university leaders, said universities were "driven by the desire to maintain excellence by recruiting the best students for their courses and identifying candidates with the most potential to succeed".

"This report shows that increasing numbers of universities are looking to use contextual data to do this," he said.

"University can be a life-changing experience. Contextual data is one way of ensuring that anyone with the ability and desire to go to university has the opportunity to do so.

"As the report concludes, it is also important that universities are open about their use of contextual data and information. There is a need to have an informed public debate about the merits of using this additional data in the university admissions process."

Recent articles about the use of contextual data by universities to help with their admissions decisions are interesting and are sure to lead to debate, which is what the universities seem to want themselves.

According to the report a recent survey found that 37% of polled universities use contextual data already and more are planning to do so.

The universities hope that the use of such data will identify students with the potential to succeed, students who may not have got the best A level grades, but whose academic potential may be identified by other factors.

By looking wider than examination results these admissions tutors are clearly trying to take into account the socio-economic background of students and also trying to even out the impact of their educational experiences on their educational outcomes to the age of 18 or 19.

Used carefully and selectively, to identify individuals with potential it strikes me as a reasonable idea and worth further research. If the motive is genuinely to widen access and to ensure that the students with potential are offered places irrespective of their background then it has to help doesn’t it. However, with tuition fees at £6000 a year or higher now, with alternatives like apprenticeships, internships, direct entry into careers, and university courses abroad often cheaper, is the picture as simple as the current articles portray?

When I went to university socio-economic background was less of an issue I suspect than now. Tuition fees were paid for by the state for everyone and as a result of a parental income means test I received the full grant to help with my living costs. Every Christmas holiday I managed to get a job at the local post office and for three summers out of four I had jobs in my local park (twice) and on a building site. As a result of the jobs I kept my head above water financially and the only debt I had at the end was because I deliberately didn’t take a holiday job at the end of my fourth year, as I had a teaching job lined up for that September. Was I lucky? Most certainly. Were general economic conditions better? Undoubtedly. Just how off-putting is the prospect of the accumulation of so much debt to a modern student? Up to £9000 a year for tuition fees alone, living costs on top of that and part time and holiday jobs much harder, though not impossible, to come by make the financial side of the university decision really very daunting.

If universities can communicate to students the financial picture they face and have a programme of bursaries in place, and other forms of financial support, information about grants and so on, students are better placed to make decisions. Schools and colleges need to be aware of all of this as well so they can give their students the best advice possible. At Polam Hall the UCAS process starts early in the Lower Sixth year and we provide advice internally. A member of the Durham University admissions team comes in to advise on the application process, including personal statements and the students do a lot of research, usually with their parents helping out. Students and parents can become quite expert during this research phase and they are doing this ever more carefully, looking at contact time, value for me, the calibre of the teaching staff and rankings. They compare not only by university, but also by department. The contemporary student is often very canny in their approach and this shows that universities in turn have to be on the ball, or they will lose out.

So, if there are systems in place that allow university admissions officers to make judgements about individuals based on a range of data and confidence in their own processes, then why not? It strikes me that these sorts of judgments have to be done at the individual level though, and should not be applied to groups. And if admissions tutors find students they really want to attend their universities or courses, then why can’t they make low offers? Transparency is key, fairness also, so any system that gives universities the ability to make judgements about individuals will have to be carefully thought through of course.