This week, tens of thousands of high school graduates are anticipated to lose their university spot and then struggle to find a replacement.
According to analysis by the Daily Mail, there is intense rivalry to acquire desirable properties. On the day of A-level results, competition for courses will be the toughest it has been in years, with some forecasting the most intense competition in living memory. In only two years, the number of last-minute courses offered at premier Russell Group colleges has decreased by half, according to the data. Those who fail to get the required grades for their first-choice program are likely to encounter more disappointment while attempting to enroll in an alternate program.
The watchdog for higher education is now advising A-level students to brace for ‘disappointment’ next week when the results are released.
As test boards are counseled to combat grade inflation, the Office for Students anticipates a significant rise in university rejections.
The watchdog told the Telegraph that even students who “wouldn’t conceive” of failing to meet the requirements of their offer may encounter difficulty since their scores would be lower than what their lecturers anticipated.
Alan Smithers, a professor of education at Buckingham University, said, “It will be one of the most competitive years, if not the most competitive year ever.”
And Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, cautioned: ‘If pupils drop a grade when they get their results, they will have to compete fiercely for spots. The assurances from prior years will no longer apply.
Universities excluding British students
Yesterday, it was forewarned that elite institutions are rejecting British pupils in order to fill their coffers with foreign students.
A record number of British high school pupils have been denied entrance to prestigious colleges, and it is suspected that admissions tutors are accepting overseas students in their place.
While British students spend an annual average of £9,250 in tuition, students from other countries pay an average of £24,000.
The most prestigious universities, including Oxbridge, rejected almost four out of ten British applicants this year, the highest rejection rate on record.
Simultaneously, the percentage of applicants to Russell Group institutions who pay the higher international fee level has increased. Last year, it reached 23%, the highest level ever, compared to 12% in 2006.
Yesterday, university administrators reported that ‘high-tariff’ schools, such as the Russell Group, are rapidly attracting students from India and China.
Sir Chris Husbands, vice-chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, told the Sunday Times that such schools are “withdrawing from the UK market because they can charge greater costs elsewhere.”
Nearly 70% of students at the London School of Economics are now international. The Department of Education said, “British students occupy the great majority of seats on university undergraduate programmes, thus it is not accurate to say… [this reason] has generated a shortage of spaces.”
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Mr. Major warned that even high-achieving students may find it more difficult to enroll in desired Clearing courses, stating, “High-achieving students will have to compete for spots.” For individuals who fail to get passing marks, the ramifications for their futures might be severe.
Teenagers will get their A-level results on Thursday for the first time since the start of the epidemic that they took their examinations in the regular manner.
However, up to 60,000 students are anticipated to fall short of projected marks as a result of stricter marking as authorities attempt to curb grade inflation.
Clearing is a second opportunity for students to earn a university seat; the Ucas website matches them with vacant degree programs. This year, a record number of 18-year-olds have applied for elite positions, which will result in fewer open elite positions. Universities are likewise attempting to reestablish population control after a two-year increase.
Many schools urged thousands of A-level students to delay their enrollment last year so that they might enroll this year.
Mr. Major said, “There is a restricted number of spots, which is exacerbated by the fact that institutions over-recruited students last year.” There is also an increase in the population of 18-year-olds.
Yesterday, university administrators cautioned that a push to attract expensive overseas students may potentially be contributing to a shortage of available spaces. While the number of foreign students at Russell Group universities has increased, the percentage of British students rejected by these schools has increased. A Daily Mail study finds that as of the end of last week, just 2,353 full-time undergraduate degree programmes were advertised via Clearing for English students at 17 of the 24 Russell Group institutions.
The number of accessible courses has decreased by 24% since a comparable poll was conducted five days before to A-level results day last year. In 2021, there were openings in 3,085 degree programs at 15 major institutions in England through Clearing. The number of top courses in Clearing has decreased by 48 percent since 2020, when 4,509 were advertised at 17 Russell Group institutions one week before to the release of A-level results. In 2018, a record-breaking 44.8% of submissions were rated A or A*, compared to 38.6% in 2020 and 25.5% in 2019. In 2021, around 19.1% of submissions received A* grades, up from 14.4% in 2020 and 7.8% in 2019.
Ofqual has indicated that this year’s grade boundaries will be established approximately between 2019 pre-pandemic levels and 2021, when teacher evaluations will have been used to determine grades.
Mr. Smithers presented a paper titled Return to Exams on Saturday, in which he anticipated that 13.5 percent of applicants would get an A* and 35 percent will receive an A or A*. These numbers amount to around 82,500 less A* and A grades than the previous year. The research said that if each impacted applicant loses an average of two grades, more than 40,000 “would be at danger of losing their desired spot.” However, this number might reach 60,000.
Mark Corver, of the DataHE consulting firm, said that students may need to be “a little more flexible on topic or university than in years past.” Last night, The Guardian released an analysis by DataHE indicating that 28,000 A-level students who had applied to attend university were still without an offer. This compared to just 16,000 applicants at this level of the 2019 admissions process.
Russell Group institutions are “working hard to provide as many individuals as possible the chance to study with them,” according to a representative.