Russell Group metric could be scrapped
A league table metric introduced by Michael Gove that measures school performance based on how many students go on to study at Russell Group universities may be scrapped.
A House of Lords committee report into secondary education this week called for Russell Group metric to be re-evaluated to ensure "performance incentives" are "coherent" across the 11-16 and 16-19 phases.
The committee had heard the measure was driving schools to disincentivise pupils from taking technical or vocational courses. The league table metric has also been accused of encouraging elitism within higher education.
The measure was first introduced in 2012, alongside a metric showing how many pupils get into Oxford or Cambridge.
The Department for Education (DfE) responded to the criticism by saying: "While we do not plan to undertake a specific review for Key Stage 4, we keep all performance measures under ongoing review, including the Russell Group destination measure."
The DfE also said the term Russell Group was used because it is “generally understood as a reference to high-tariff universities."
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