One of the questions about the increased access to higher education is the question of how it is achieved. The HEA continues to have a dedicated office for equity of access to higher education.
A challenge is to esnure that not only are students from poorer familes going to college in numbers that reflect their proportion of the population, but that they are getting into elite degree courses like law or medicine in those proportions.
Another facet of that challenge is ensuring that the increased access for those groups is not achieved by primarily by groups entering courses leading to qualifications at Levels 6 (advanced certificates) and Level 7 (ordinary bachelors — which used to be called diplomas) as against Level 8 (honors bachelor degrees).