Head attacks 'unreliable' university background checks Universities have been required to set targets related to the admission of disadvantaged students to ensure the imposition of tuition fees of up to £9,000 do not deter the poor. Research last year suggested that rising numbers of selective universities were preparing to us contextual data - information on students" background - make lower-grade offers, fast-track poor pupils into interviews or review borderline candidates who narrowly miss out on places. In all, it is believed that up to two-thirds of universities are using this information, which can include data on family income, postcode, the performance of applicants" schools and whether candidates" parents went to university. But addressing a conference staged by the Higher Education Policy Institute in central London on Wednesday, Mr Griffiths said he was "concerned about contextual data." "I'm concerned about how robust they are, how reliable, how current," he said. I'm worried that my students might be offered, or not offered a place on the grounds that my school is successful, or unsuccessful, that their house might be in a particular unfavoured postcode or even that self-declared information about parental higher education experience or not might be used to either make, or not make, an offer. I believe that universities should be offering places on the basis of what an individual student can bring to that university and how much that student will benefit from a university education. Mr Griffiths, the headmaster of Northampton School for Boys, said that "disadvantaged youngsters" should be made to "feel valued, not patronised." In further comments, he also called for "absolute clarity" about which subjects are more likely to lead to a good job, insisting that students should not be fooled into taking degrees with "sexy sounding titles." "Many youngsters, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, will be attracted to courses that seem to lead to a specific career, a course with prospects," he said. Some vocational subjects, such as medicine and dentistry will almost inevitably lead to employment, since careful control is kept on the numbers being trained. But other courses at some universities are often given more sexy sounding titles which purport to lead to a career but may well have disappointing records in placing graduates in that field. For instance, how many graduates of forensic science are employed as forensic scientists?