The Association of School and College Leaders has backed a major
overhaul of the university admissions system to end the current
‘pantomime’ around offers and admissions.
In our response to a consultation from the
Department for Education on post-qualifications admissions reform
we have cautiously supported the proposal for Model 2.
Under this system, students would still apply for university
courses before they complete their A-levels and other
qualifications, but would not receive offers based on predicted
grades as currently happens. Instead, their applications would be
held until after results day and universities would then make
offers on the basis of their actual results.
ASCL believes that this would help to address concerns around the
accuracy of predicted grades and how this impacts upon students
from disadvantaged backgrounds, as well as issues around the use
of unconditional offers and the transparency of the grades
required for university courses.
School and college leaders have been frustrated by the practice
in some universities of making students so-called ‘conditional
unconditional offers’ – whereby the offer to the student is made
unconditional if the student makes the university their firm
choice.
This disincentivises students to do well in A-levels and other
qualifications and can lead to them choosing courses which are
not necessarily right for them.
Another issue is the practice in some universities of making
offers at high grades and then accepting lower grades after
results are known. This makes it difficult for students and
teachers to know exactly what grades are actually required.
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and
College Leaders, said: “On balance, we think that a reform of the
university admissions system is needed in order to end what has
become something of a pantomime around university offers and
admissions. It was a marginal call, because there’s a good
argument for sticking with the existing system and trying to sort
out the problems, but we’re not confident that this will actually
happen, so we’re backing change.
“The challenges of this change should not be under-estimated
though, and we’re particularly conscious that students would need
more support after results day under this new system because they
would be juggling more options than is currently the case.
Additional funding would be needed to employ dedicated advisers
or pay overtime to teaching staff.
“This reform would also address some of the issues around
predicted grades and particularly the concern that students from
disadvantaged backgrounds may sometimes be under-predicted. But
it’s important to note that schools and colleges would still need
to give students a good idea of their likely grades when they are
applying for university to help guide their choices.
“It is a crying shame that the government decoupled AS levels
from A-levels as this system provided a very good way of
providing accurate predictions.”
Our full consultation response can be read here.
