The following letter was sent to Adam Tickell following comments reported in The Guardian on 6 March (https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/mar/06/university-vice-chancellor-review-student-loan-a-levels-education)

Dear Professor Tickell

I am writing on behalf of Birmingham UCU to express our serious concern regarding comments attributed to you in The Guardian, in which you suggest reviewing access to student loans for individuals entering higher education without A‑levels, and claim that public funds are being loaned to people who are “not really capable of graduating.”

We are deeply troubled by the implications of these remarks. Restricting access to student loans on the basis of A‑level status would significantly worsen existing inequalities in higher education and within the wider region. Students who enter university without A‑levels are disproportionately working‑class, care‑experienced, disabled, mature, or from racially minoritised communities. Many progress via BTECs, Access to HE courses, foundation years and other non‑traditional pathways. Removing or limiting loan eligibility for these routes would most acutely impact those who already face structural barriers to education and to secure, well‑paid employment.

Birmingham UCU firmly rejects the notion that students entering through these pathways are “not really capable of graduating.” A‑level achievement is not a neutral or reliable measure of academic ability; rather, it reflects entrenched inequalities in schooling, income, geography and racism. To use A‑levels as a hard gatekeeping mechanism for loan access would entrench earlier disadvantage and transform it into a formalised barrier to higher education participation.

We are also concerned about the deficit‑based framing implied by the reported remarks. Suggesting that some students constitute a “bad risk” and are therefore less deserving of public support risks legitimising a more stratified higher education system—one in which only already‑advantaged learners are seen as worthy of state‑backed loans, while others are pushed toward lower‑status or more costly alternatives.

Birmingham UCU recognises the very real pressures generated by the current, unsustainable higher education funding model. However, restricting opportunity by narrowing who is permitted access to student loans cannot be the solution. More equitable and effective approaches include: properly funding teaching and student support; improving maintenance support; reforming repayment terms; and investing in foundation years, access programmes and in‑study academic and wellbeing support so that all students are set up to succeed.

We therefore call on the University of Birmingham to reaffirm its commitment to widening participation and to distance itself clearly from any policy direction that would restrict loan access for students without A‑levels. We urge you, and sector leaders more broadly, to work collaboratively with staff, students and trade unions to develop funding reforms that address—rather than deepen—educational inequality.

We would welcome the opportunity to discuss these concerns further.

Yours sincerely,
Birmingham UCU

Postscript: Since sending this letter, we have been encouraged to see that Guardian readers have written in to express their own dismay at Professor Tickell’s comments — you can read their responses here.