· England,
Wales and Northern Ireland alone in using predicted grades to award
university places
· Report
makes case for a switch to post-qualification
admissions
The UK is the only country where predicted grades are used
to award university places, a new study for the University and
College Union (UCU) has revealed today.
The Post Qualifications
Admissions: How it works around the world report,
written by Dr Graeme Atherton, looks at the higher education
admissions systems in 30 countries across the globe including
Germany, Singapore and the USA. It finds that only England, Wales
and Northern Ireland use a system of predicted grades to make
offers of university places.
UCU said the new report showed the UK was out of step with
the rest of the world on university admissions, and called for an
urgent overhaul of the system.
UCU also said the current system of predicted grades
encourages the use of unconditional offers, which critics including
universities minister have said make a mockery of
exams and put students under enormous pressure to make snap
decisions about their future. Research has also shown that as few
as one in six (16%) A-level
grades are predicted correctly.
UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: ‘We are alone in the
world in using a system where students are offered university
places based on highly inaccurate predicted grades. The current
system has many failings and many critics, including the
universities minister. Unconditional offers have made a mockery
of exams and led to inflated grade predictions, while putting
students under enormous pressure to make a snap decision about
their future.
‘The simplest and fairest way to deal with these problems
is for us to adopt a system of post-qualification admissions,
where offers are based on actual achievement rather than
estimated potential, as the rest of the world does. It’s time for
the government to give the system the urgent overhaul it
needs.’
