All must have prizes?

One of the biggest mistakes of the previous government (though they don't think it's a mistake) was to declare that they wanted as many people as possible to get into university. It wasn't their only mistake by a long shot but it was probably the most costly in dumbing down the populace and diluting our academic standards as many universities offered lower entry qualifications to get people in and start charging them.
This still carries on today as the appointment of Les Ebdon as head of the university fair access body, a dept to get as many people from low pay and minorities into universities and to hell with the necessary academic standards needed.
BBC.

Les Ebdon has been formally announced as head of the university fair access body, despite the opposition of MPs on the committee examining his selection.
Business Secretary Vince Cable rejected attempts to block Prof Ebdon as the head of the Office for Fair Access.
Prof Ebdon had told MPs he would impose financial penalties on universities which failed to meet access targets.
Mr Cable said Prof Ebdon had the qualities to "deal even-handedly with all parts of the sector".
Prof Ebdon became the focus for a political storm when he was named as ministers' preferred candidate as the next director of the Office for Fair Access (Offa).
Universities wanting to charge higher tuition fees have to satisfy this watchdog that they are protecting access for poorer or under-represented groups.
MPs on the Business, Innovation and Skills select committee voted against his appointment, saying they "were not convinced by Prof Ebdon's descriptions of the root causes of the obstacles to accessing universities".
But Mr Cable stood by his candidate and has pressed ahead with his appointment.

I'm not surprised Vince Cable wants this man in place, he's basically a socialist in Lib Dem clothing anyway and a supporter of the dumbing down equality that pervades today's education as James in his excellent posts on the wreckers of our education has highlight in Orphans of Liberty.
Yet frequently we read about reports from Employers stating Can't read, can't write, can't add up of potential job candidates, even those coming their way from universities, though many of the top universities themselves have had to add extra curricular courses to bring candidates up to university entry standards.
Yet here we have Prof Ebdon, a man who has risen like scum to the top of the equalities in education tree and who is going to use his position to force universities to take in more pupils from less well-off backgrounds and minorities at the expense of students who are better qualified.
Yet what we actually need is for our universities to only take the best, the top 10% and give them an academic qualification that is second to none compared to the highest worldwide qualifications. We don't want them to be taking in 50% of the school leavers and have them only qualified as shelf stackers because they have make believe qualifications at the end of their time. We most certainly do not want our brightest and best shouldered aside by some equalities body who wants less skilled candidates from select groups in because "it's fairer that way"
Life isn't fair, but try telling that to the left entrenched in our education system, they'd rather have everybody having a third class degree so as to make those who are not so bright feel better.