Should a student complete a foreign language course at a level lower than the placement, the lower-level course with its grade appears on the transcript but earns no credit toward graduation.
But since he had only been awarded five lower-level GCSE grades, his top choice universities were off limits.
The HE White paper promised to extend off-quota recruitment, over time, to students with lower A-level grades, or equivalent.
Jenny Chung, 19, is studying international business management at Oxford Brookes University after calling the helpline last year when she got lower A-level grades than predicted.
The score for King's suggests that the few students enrolling with lower A-level grades than average for the course are still graduating with top degrees.
In an interview with the Guardian, Milburn denied he was calling for positive discrimination, and highlighted work done by Kings and Leeds teaching hospitals, which offer students with lower A-level grades extra foundation years to level the playing field.
He said universities should use "contextual data" and admit students from disadvantaged areas on lower A-level grades than their more advantaged peers if research showed such students would do well on degree courses.
Plans to deny student loans to those with lower A-level grades would hit poor families in regions where social mobility is already stalling, data obtained by Education Guardian shows.
He pays tribute to the way that some American universities set great store by the diversity of their student bodies, and mentions the possibility of high-ranking universities requiring slightly lower A-level grades from people in "challenging circumstances", but admits that doing so would "open you up to allegations of social engineering and all that kind of stuff".
"Here there is a strong case to offer a place with one or two lower A-level grades to students from a particularly disadvantaged background knowing that, on average, their achievement would at least match that of an independent school individual".
Graduate-entry students were seen to perform as well as undergraduates in final examinations despite lower A-level grades and a shorter 4-year accelerated course.
