Record numbers of students are applying to university: so it's already a lottery. Now new plans could mean that discrimination becomes embedded in the entire process.

First, Lord Mandelson wants students from poorer backgrounds to gain places on popular courses with much lower grades than candidates from high-performing schools. In his latest vision of access for all, disadvantaged applicants could be given a two-grade head-start.

For example, instead of having to achieve three A grades at Alevel for medicine courses, bright pupils from low-performing state schools would need just two Bs and a C. This could also apply to courses such as English, history and law. In the rush towards "open access", students from high-achieving state, grammar and independent schools will be penalised.

Second, British students, whatever their background, are likely to be disadvantaged as universities turn to overseas pupils. Students from abroad pay far more in tuition fees and are therefore prized "customers".

Nearly 10 per cent of all students are now from overseas – up from 7 per cent in 2000 and there are no government restrictions on their numbers. The temptation is obvious: British undergraduates pay £3,225 each year in tuition fees, non-EU students pay £14,750.

This trend is ironic, given the Government's repeated determination to attract 50 per cent of "home" teenagers on to university courses. Some of the best universities are already talking of closing places to UK students this year. Later this month, the annual scramble for last-minute places, known as "clearing", will commence. At a time of tight funding, it is likely that spare clearing places will be allocated only to the lucrative overseas market. In contrast, the record numbers of home applicants could find that access for them has been capped – even though they may have gained good grades.

Universities must be open to all. No one would deny that the aim of helping bright children from poor backgrounds study at the highest level is laudable. It is right, too, that university students from overseas should be part of the exciting cultural and academic "mix".

There is already huge wastage in the system, with many students dropping out of expensive degree courses – often because they are unsuited to university study. A staggering 22 per cent of all students fail to complete their courses, costing many millions in funding and wasted places. Such squandering of resources is little short of criminal, with places now in short supply.

I am sorry for any student who has to face the trauma of failing at university. But the Government must shoulder much of the blame for the way it has consistently encouraged teenagers to believe they have a right to a university education. Dropout rates are the worst at the new universities: the former polytechnics where the Government's open-access policy has been at its most pronounced. At Bolton University, London Metropolitan, Thames Valley University and others, more than 40 per cent of students fail to finish their degrees. More than £800 million has been spent attempting to stop students like these from "dropping out".

This is why places must be awarded on merit. Every month, there are reports of falling standards. Last week, universities were accused of "dumbing down", as record numbers of first-class degrees (13 per cent of all degrees) were awarded. Our universities are respected the world over – hence the influx of foreign students. If high entry standards slip further, by allowing students with lower grades on to tough courses, the entire system will be fatally undermined.

Discrimination against independent-school applicants (many of whose parents, like myself, face a struggle to pay fees) and against hard-working students from state schools who achieve the right grades, is clearly unjust because all their hard work will be made to seem irrelevant. High-performing, middle-class students are at a disadvantage when applying to top universities, such as Edinburgh, because of repeated attempts at "social engineering", using candidates' postcodes as part of the application process. So even without Lord Mandelson's latest initiative, the number of students from poorer backgrounds is slowly increasing.

The solution to a fair system of entry for higher education is to raise academic standards in all schools, including "bog-standard" comprehensives. It is a crime that after a decade of Labour prioritising education, so many teenagers still lack essential skills in English, maths and science – let alone are capable of achieving the all-round excellence required for university courses.

Instead of playing party politics and pandering to its core vote with phoney schemes like these, the Government should be doing its utmost to ensure school standards are raised across the board. Then the university system truly would be open to all. This is one nettle the Government consistently refuses to grasp.

(www.eduwo.com, Jainlyn&Charlotte)