Pressure is on for ministers to intervene in row over rejected student

Pressure has been put on ministers to intervene in a row that has erupted over Imperial College London’s decision to withdraw the offer to a straight A-grade student from an extremely poor area in the country, because of a past criminal conviction.
The National Union of Students has called for the government to step in after the college revealed that it would not be reconsidering its decision, despite criticism from MPs, youth charities and opposition leaders.
The student in question, Majid Ahmed, from Bradford, received a conviction for a minor burglary in 2005 and was ordered to serve a four-month referral order for community service. Since his conviction, he has moved schools, volunteered with disability charities and achieved four A grades at A level. Ahmed’s appeal over Imperial’s decision to withdraw the offer of a place to study medicine was lost last week.
“It’s alarming. It says people can’t make mistakes without running their lives. We understand that governments can’t interfere in university autonomy but the government has a responsibility to show moral leadership here and find out what went wrong,” said Wes Streeting, President of the NUS.
Phil Willis, Chair of the Commons select committee responsible for universities, backed Streeting’s argument by stating: “The minister should really step in to sort it out. You cannot have a university saying someone with a spent conviction has to suffer for life: it’s against all natural justice. It’s up to the minister for higher education to have a really strong conversation with the vice-chancellor to say, will he reconsider this?”