University entrance requirements

are under review at last.
Whether they will change for the better is another question. I rather doubt it. It is likely that a great deal of pressure will be put on universities to make entry more "inclusive" and "diverse".
Let it be said I have absolutely no problems with inclusion and diversity - provided that people can meet the required standard and are willing to do the work involved. We should be giving people who can do both those things all the encouragement we can. 
I do have a problem with allowing people who cannot or won't do those things to be given places.  
Examination results at secondary school level may not be the best indicator. Work needs to be done on that.
I know all this because I didn't get a place at university when I left school. The reasons for that were not the  usual reasons but it did mean that I had to wait. I knew I was going to get there one day - because I wanted to get there. I worked for it. I worked while I was there. 
I didn't have an interview for the first university course I did but I did need to provide references. They were sent directly to the university so I don't know what was said in them but I trusted the people who wrote them to be honest. 
I didn't do things in the usual order or in the usual way but I knew what I wanted to do and that I would need to work for it.  When I later applied to do law I knew why I wanted to do it. I needed it.
I was sitting up in a hospital bed recovering from major knee surgery when I had an interview by telephone from half way across the country.  Why did I want to do the course? I explained and wondered if the fact that I did not actually want to be a lawyer  would go against me. It didn't. The person at the other end actually sounded interested, interested enough to say, "When you get here I'd like to know more about that." He wanted to know how I was going to support myself. I told him what I had done in the past and what I planned to do then.
And, at that point, they actually made it a little easier for me than I expected. They found students who needed extra tuition and paid me to do it. I had to work for it and it was often hard work. There is nothing like being given a very chauvinistic Japanese male who thinks it is beneath  his dignity to be taught by a woman to ensure I do the very best I can!
I thought of that recently when someone said, "You had it easy. They gave you some work." No, they didn't. I worked to get there. I know other people who worked just as hard to get there too - like my friend C.... who saved and saved and then crammed four years into three and still managed to get first class honours. Her family didn't want her to go to university and it was the only way she could do it. 
One of my current undergraduate students, one who is really struggling, admitted to me the other day, "Cat, I don't want to do this. I never wanted to do it. They sort of told me to do it because they have this thing about people like me doing it." She's indigenous. She feels compelled to try and finish the course but she isn't happy. We both know that she would be just as happy working as a teacher aide. It is in fact what she will probably end up doing. She doesn't want to be the teacher although she loves working with children. Getting her to do the course she is doing isn't really about inclusion or diversity. It is more about satisfying the demands of others that people like N... get included. 
It won't work like that. There need to be new ways of assessing people for  university.