US: Texas scales back access programme

The Texas Legislature voted last weekend to scale back a programme under which Texans who graduated in the top 10% of their high schools were given automatic admission to the state university of their choice, writes James C McKinley for The New York Times. The action put limits on a 10-year-old experiment to increase diversity in the colleges.

The University of Texas, Austin, a top-ranked institution, had sought changes to the programme for years because it allowed admissions officials almost no latitude in putting together a class and endangered some important but less popular departments, like music. Last year, 81% of the members of the incoming class were admitted under the 10% rule.

Suburban parents with students at schools with rigorous standards also complained that the law discriminated against their children, since it was harder to make the cut at such schools than at smaller, rural and some urban schools.
Full report on The New York Times site