Universities get bonuses for D students

LONDON, March 6 (UPI) -- The British government offers universities premiums for accepting students with poor results on examinations.

The money, 1,000 pounds or about $2,000 for each student, is to be used on remedial classes, the Daily Mail reports. The bonuses are offered for students who have received D's or E's on their A Levels, the exams required of British students seeking university entrance.

The government hopes to increase the reach of higher education so that half of the population attends university.

Alan Smithers, an education professor at Buckingham University who advises a parliament committee on children and schools, called the bonuses a "perverse incentive."

"It's a bit like trying to find young people to represent us in the 2012 Olympics who are not very good and giving the coaches more money to try to train them up," he said.

Students who do not do well on A Levels might be better off getting practical training, he said.