In the interests of greater transparency and consistency, the University of Bristol has reviewed its procedures for admitting undergraduate students. It has circulated education leaders, politicians, professional bodies and others with copies of the procedures it is adopting for the 2004 admissions round.

The University reconsiders its admissions procedures annually, but the national debate on how the UK's top universities select their students and the Government's new policy directions on higher education gave this year's review special significance.

In recent years, Bristol and some other leading universities have been accused of bias both for and against applicants from the state and independent education sectors. Controversy has been focused on a limited range of highly competitive subjects such as English, History and Law, where many well-qualified applicants from both sectors have to be rejected.

Bristol has always insisted that it opposes discrimination of any kind, and has strongly defended the need to take educational context into account when judging candidates' academic potential.

Professor Patricia Broadfoot, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, said: "High academic standards and a balanced and diverse student body have always been Bristol's watchwords. They will remain so, and we intend to work even harder at seeking and recruiting the best applicants from the broadest cross-section of society.

"We are making our admissions procedures and the principles on which they rest as clear as we can and ensuring that they are applied as consistently as possible.

"We plan to implement our revised procedures for the 2004 undergraduate entry and will reconsider them each year in the light of experience, research and best practice."

The University's document 'Home/EU Undergraduate Admissions Principles and Procedures' is available on the web at www.bristol.ac.uk/university/how_run/policies/admissions-policy.html