Secretary of State for Education (Rt Hon MP): Today
I want to update both Houses on policy developments for reform
within the university admissions system.
On Friday 13 November, I announced the Department’s intention to
explore a Post Qualification Admissions (PQA) system for higher
education, where students would receive and accept offers after
they have received their Level 3 (A-Level or equivalent) grades.
The government’s manifesto committed us to “improve the
application and offer system” and in a way that is "underpinned
by a commitment to fairness, quality of learning and teaching,
and access". Evidence shows that the current admissions system
falls short of this commitment, which is why we are now exploring
how a new system could work. We want to ensure the system works
for disadvantaged students and facilitates the levelling up that
we all want to see, so that everyone with the qualifications and
ability to benefit from higher education can do so, no matter
what their background.
If we were starting from scratch today, no one would design the
higher education admissions system we have now – a system which,
with its reliance on predicted grades, systematically favours the
most advantaged. Whilst the higher education provider base has
expanded significantly in recent decades, with the emergence of
new providers and courses, the admissions system has remained
largely unchanged since the 1960s. The current system lacks
transparency, and it works against the interests of some
students, notably high achieving disadvantaged students. In
recent years we have also seen the emergence of undesirable
admissions practices, such as the mass use of unconditional
offers.
We know, due to the pandemic, that students have experienced
considerable disruption to their education this year. We believe
that the unique set of circumstances students faced could have
been better dealt with by a fairer higher education admissions
system.
A broad range of interested parties across the education system,
and from across the political spectrum – including the Sutton
Trust, Policy Exchange, and the University and College Union –
have been calling for a Post Qualification Admissions system to
support social mobility and to remove the complexity and
undesirable practices of the current system. According to a
recent poll by the Sutton Trust, two-thirds of this year’s
university entrants (66%) are in favour of removing predicted
grades from university admissions and making decisions based on
actual results. Universities UK has also confirmed its desire to
work with government to explore moving to such a system.
The government will therefore consult universities, colleges,
schools, students, and other interested parties to develop a
potential model of reform over the coming months. We will work
across the sectors to design a more efficient and transparent
system that helps all students, especially those who are
disadvantaged, access the course and institution that best suits
their aspirations and capabilities. This is a set of reforms we
would look to deliver during the course of this parliament, but
it will not affect students over the current academic year.
