A significant minority were applying with "newer and less traditional qualifications or through less straightforward routes".
Once in a blue moon, a politician comes along who combines pop star allure and all the less glamorous qualifications such as temperament, competence and knowledge.
(Those who aspire to serve in Congress sometimes "pay their dues" by playing for the N.B.A. or the N.F.L. or starring on "The Love Boat," which are all less relevant qualifications for the job than financing city schools).
Yet, isn't it a good thing that we've got universities that will take risks and admit students who have potential but less traditional qualifications; who will give a chance to the adults who want to return to learn?
And they say they would insist on having the results of different types of exams reported separately, so that less demanding qualifications do not drive out better ones.Creative destructionOne piece of evidence from Sweden suggests both a challenge and an opportunity for the Tories, however.
Mr Gove believes that under Labour, many schools pushed children towards less academic qualifications and subjects to boost their league table rankings.
And as for education, if his online biography is correct then he has even less formal qualifications than I do, and I was expelled from school at the age of seventeen!
Projects must be competitively bid on, with the typical "bidders' list" being between five to 10 companies long and many more bidders participating in government requirements for which less pre-qualification is done.
Future development of the 13-gene molecular profile into a RT-qPCR based assay, will allow a less subjective qualification of breast tumour samples as suitable for microarray diagnostics.
Finally, the policy of "bearing down on non-completions" means institutions that have higher non-completion rates - a consequence of recruiting students from non-traditional backgrounds with lower qualifications, less confidence, fewer financial resources and less chance of getting highly paid jobs - are penalised through the claw-back of grants when those students leave.
Are particular qualifications less highly regarded than others, eg A-level, BTec, etc? No.
