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How does the current system work?
Sixth formers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland apply for places and receive offers before they have even sat their A-levels or final exams. The system relies on universities making conditional offers, which are contingent on students achieving specific grades, or unconditional offers unrelated to grades.
What is the problem?
Both students and universities are forced to use grades predicted by schools that are most often inaccurate – only 16% of pupils receive accurate predictions. This leads to as many as one in five students missing out on their favoured choices and having to reapply through a second-round system known as clearing. And the recent surge in unconditional offers is criticised by school leaders, who say it removes incentives for pupils to perform at their best in the exams.
What would change under Labour?
Using post-qualification admissions (PQA) means students would know their exam results before making applications, and so could calibrate their choice of institution more accurately. And it means universities could make more rapid decisions, while the bureaucracy of grade predictions and clearing could be done away with, and the use of unconditional offers would end.
How do other countries conduct admissions?
England, Wales and Northern Ireland are alone among developed countries in using predicted grades as the basis of initial offers for admission, leading to a more bureaucratic system that leaves many disappointed. Even within the UK, Scotland uses PQA for domestic applicants.
Why is the current system set up that way?
The process is rooted in an era when relatively few students went on to higher education. However, this now means that more than 300,000 applicants from within the UK enrol as undergraduates in a national network that is unusual in having such a selective and variated range of institutions. Other countries do not have national exams or have more localised or homogenous institutions.
What is the effect on disadvantaged students?
Research suggests that hundreds of the most able students from poor or minority ethnic backgrounds fare badly under the current system, because they qualify for more prestigious universities than their predictions allow. But others argue that disadvantaged students benefit from an extended application process, and lack the resources to cope if it was shortened.
What would PQA look like?
Many elements – such as open days – wouldn’t be affected. However, if the current academic timetable was retained, a new system would see a flurry of applications in the few weeks between results being published and the start of university term. It’s most likely that the exam timetable would need to shift, with A-levels taking place earlier in the year, or university terms altered.
What’s the long-term outlook?
In a few years the current demographic dip in 18-year-olds will end, while universities have been reining in their growth after a period of rapid expansion. If the current admissions system remains in use then undergraduate places will become more competitive, and the proportion of disappointed applicants missing out on their offers will surge. Labour’s proposals would avoid that scenario.
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