Responding to warnings today (Friday) from
the Office for
Students (OfS) to universities over their use of
unconditional offers, the University and College Union (UCU) said
the best solution was to overhaul how and when students apply to
university.
Launching a consultation on how the admissions
system can best serve students, the OfS today likened
universities’ use of some unconditional offers to “pressure
selling”. UCU said the consultation had to look seriously
at moving to a post-qualification application
(PQA) system.
The union recently set out a model for an admissions
system where students apply to university after they
receive their grades. UCU believes this
approach would be fairer for students, bring the UK into line
with the rest of the world and eliminate the use of unconditional
offers as well as the chaotic clearing process.
UCU head of policy, Matt Waddup, said: ‘It is
encouraging that the higher education sector is finally looking
at how to tackle the explosion of unconditional offers. Any
consultation must prominently feature the voices of staff as they
are the ones on the front line.
‘Shifting to a system where students apply to
university after they receive their grades would make these type
of unconditional offers redundant, bring us in line with the rest
of the world and end the chaotic clearing scramble.’
Almost a quarter of
students applying to university received at least one
unconditional offer in 2018, compared to just 1% five years ago.
Yet as few as one in six (16%) students
have their A-level grades predicted
correctly. No other
countries use predicted grades to award university
places, and seven in ten staff
involved in university admissions back a PQA
system.
