Education
Should University Admission Be Based Solely on Merit?
LNAT Section B · Model essay
The essay prompt
Some argue that places at university, and especially at the most selective universities, should be awarded purely on academic merit. Decide whether you agree, and defend a clear position.
The stance
No. Admission should not rest solely on merit, because raw attainment measures privilege as much as talent and universities are public institutions with duties beyond private reward; but the cure is contextual, reformed selection, not the opposite extreme of a lottery, which abandons judgment without curing the underlying inequality.
The case for
Merit is socially conditioned, not neutral, so 'pure' attainment reproduces privilege.
An A grade at a school with small classes, tutors and exam coaching is not the same achievement as the same grade won against disadvantage. The Sutton Trust found that, although independent-school pupils make up about 18% of A-level entrants, they win roughly 42% of Oxbridge places and are around seven times more likely to reach Oxbridge than comprehensive-school peers. Treating those grades as 'pure merit' launders inequality into apparent desert.
The case against
Merit-based selection rewards effort and protects standards against arbitrariness.
Attainment is the most transparent and reviewable proxy we have for academic ability, and it rewards the work applicants actually did. Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights itself states that higher education 'shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit', treating merit as the fair organising principle once access is genuinely equal. Abandon it entirely and you sever reward from achievement.
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