By Eric King-
Head teachers are warning Universities to stop making unconditional offers to prospective students before they have completed their levels. The number of unconditional offers made by universities has taken by 32 per cent in just one year, and almost a quarter of pupils now receive at least one offer of a place that doesn’t depend on their A-level grades.
The data provided by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service shows that a high 22.9 per cent of all 18-year-old applicants in the three nations received at least one unconditional offer this year, a rise of 29 per cent on 2017. The issue is becoming a growing problem for many schools, and led to the Universities regulator, the office for students investigating the practise, strongly opposed by head teachers in Uk schools.
Unconditional offers promise university places to pupils regardless of their A-level results, and critics say it allows pupils to make less effort in their final year at school.Geoff Barton, the general secretary of school leaders’ union ASCL, said the rise was driven by competition between universities, and “is not in the best interests of students”.
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“It can lead to students making less effort in their A-levels because their place is assured. That can then hamper their job prospects later down the line if potential employers take into account their A-level grades.
“We urge universities to desist from making unconditional offers as an inducement and we urge students to make their choice on the basis of the course which best suits their needs.”
This year, 42,100 such offers were selected as applicants’ “firm choices”, up from 29,980 last year, an increase of 40 per cent. The number of unconditional offers accepted as firm choices by pupils has risen far more sharply than the number accepted as an “insurance” option, which has remained relatively stable since 2016.
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Many schools and colleges have complained of a notable impact on the attitude of pupils in their final year of A levels.
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