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The education secretary, Gavin Williamson, has backed a review into university admissions, including a fresh look at whether school leavers should only apply for places after receiving their A-level results.
Williamson said recent developments, such as the steep rise in unconditional offers to sixth-formers, reopened questions over the admissions system and its calendar, as part of a review being carried out by the Office for Students (OfS), the higher education regulator for England.
“I recognise that we need to review if the current system is working as well as it can, so I am glad the OfS is looking at whether it would be in students’ interests to apply for their university place after they have their A-level results,” Williamson said.
The education secretary’s remarks came as the Department for Education (DfE) published Williamson’s letter of direction to the OfS. “I would endorse the proposal to use the review to consider the pros and cons of potential models of post-qualification application (PQA),” Williamson told the OfS.
“While this has been considered before, the context in which the sector is operating has changed.”
He said the review should be an opportunity to “further improve and develop the admissions system so that it remains fair and transparent for students both now and in the future, particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds”.
Williamson and the DfE are said to be “open-minded” on PQA, as a way of tackling the growth in unconditional offers in which sixth-formers are offered places without even having sat their A-level or BTec exams.
Some headteachers blame unconditional offers for pupils “coasting” and getting lower than expected A-level grades. But many also oppose the changes that a switch to a post-qualifications system would entail, such as moving A-level exams earlier in the year for grades to be published before applications.
Increasing numbers of students are using post-qualification admissions for courses still on offer after exam results are published, known as clearing. Williamson is said to be particularly interested in the University of Cambridge’s efforts to get around the lack of exam results – it now offers a “second chance” to high-performing disadvantaged candidates who narrowly missed out on a place during initial applications.
Research has found that about 1,000 high-achieving students from disadvantaged backgrounds have their grades under-predicted each year, which can force them to wait a year to reapply.
Williamson’s letter to the OfS included a revival of the government’s teaching excellence and student outcomes framework (Tef), which ranks institutions based on data such as drop-out rates, graduate employment and student satisfaction.
Williamson called for the OfS to conduct a new Tef exercise for each subject taught at a university, to be published in 2021, as well as a new round of Tef assessments for each higher education provider to be published in 2020.
The move to extend the Tef to individual subjects was criticised by Universities UK (UUK), which lobbies on behalf of Britain’s major universities and colleges.
“The current definition of excellence is weighted heavily towards employment outcomes, which overlooks the wider benefits of receiving high quality teaching and learning and how this can be measured,” UUK said.
It called for subject-level Tef assessments “to be halted until further consideration is given to the limitations of its methodology, the resource impact and how much actual value it gives students in their decision-making”.
UUK welcomed another of Williamson’s proposals to the OfS, for a review of part-time, mature student and flexible learning provision, including a review of funding for flexible learning. One of the failings of the English education system since 2012 has been the steep drop in mature and part-time students, which has been largely overlooked by policymakers.
Williamson also told the OfS to pay greater attention to the experiences of international students on British university campuses, including their mental health, wellbeing and employability.
“It will, therefore, be critical to ensure the OfS makes public transparent data on the outcomes achieved by international students, including those studying wholly outside the UK [such as at the overseas campuses of UK universities], such as it does for domestic students,” Williamson wrote.
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