With the results published on Thursday, Ucas chief executive Clare Marchant said the government’s policy to rein in inflation to gradually return results to pre-pandemic levels was necessary but “wasn’t easy”. He spoke after comments from leading industry figures that tens of thousands of students look set for disappointment this year, with 80,000 fewer As and As than last year according to one estimate, which could in turn lead to 40,000 students or more missing out course or the university of their choice. Ucas, along with England’s exams regulator Ofqual and the Department for Education, tried to steady nerves ahead of results day amid warnings that this year’s university admissions will be among the most competitive in memory. Marchant acknowledged that the offer rate had fallen, particularly affecting applicants to the most selective universities and popular courses such as medicine and dentistry. Given the changing circumstances, he said the universities’ offers were “precise, conservative and cautious”. It does mean, however, that many students whose plans have fallen through will be chasing places through the purge later this week, and will have to consider different courses in different locations to secure their way into higher education. Some UK universities had only a handful or no courses available a week before results day. It is the latest setback for a group of students whose education has been severely disrupted by Covid-19, with two extended periods of school closures and the cancellation of their GCSEs. The Government and Ofqual have introduced a number of adjustments to exams, including advance notice for some subjects, designed to mitigate missed learning, but even England’s higher education watchdog, the Office for Students (OfS) , said students should be prepared for disappointment this Thursday. After record results last year, when 44.8% of grades were either A or A at A level, this is expected to drop to 35% (from 25.5% in 2019). While almost one in five (19.1%) grades were A* last year, this year the figure is expected to drop to 13.5%. Similarly, the number of A* to C grades is expected to fall from 88.5% in 2021 to 82%. “Ofqual wants to lower the grading but if you compare it to – certainly what I’ve seen – the predicted grades of some schools, they’ve accepted that generally those results will fall but not necessarily for them,” said John Blake, the OfS director of fair access and participation told the Telegraph. “This could lead to many students feeling quite frustrated on the day when their grades don’t match the grades they expected. And I think it’s important that people prepare a little bit for that and recognize that.” Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Marchant told attendees of a webinar hosted by the Higher Education Policy Institute that the good news was that record or near-record numbers of students were likely to get into their first choice of university. But he said: “Going back to either an intermediate position or, as Ofqual said, a middle, was never going to be without pain. He said it would be a busy time for clearance this week. 40% of students are likely to use the system to secure last-minute places and Marchant said there were 28,500 different courses available, including law and psychology. Marchant also said the next few years were not “without risk”. Grades fell this year to a midpoint between pre-pandemic levels in 2019 and teacher-rated grades in 2021, but next year’s grades will fall further to 2019 levels. Looking further ahead, he said the growing number of 18-year-olds in the population and increasing demand for higher education means the higher education environment will remain extremely competitive.
