As we wait for first results to come in from UAE schools, we look at how the Media is reporting this year’s A Level Results Day.
The UK’s Daily Mail is reporting that UK Clearing will be a “frenzy” because the grades awarded this year will show “the biggest plunge on record” leaving an estimated 26,000 students with no university place. The impact on this year’s cohort will be felt even more strongly because they were “among those who, on the whole, had higher grades than normal when their GCSE were graded by their teachers during the pandemic.” They highlight the estimates of Alan Smithers from the University of Buckingham we reported on yesterday that around 100,000 students, compared with 2022, will face a downgrade in their expected grades – and that those students had already faced the biggest plunge in grades in history. This year will be worse, Smithers believes, if the Examination Bodies follow UK government diktat that grades must return to 2019 grade boundaries. Many question whether they will achieve this however.
In a bleak synopsis of the day facing many students it argues that the boom in the number of eighteen year olds sitting A Levels this year means that universities will not be able to meet demand. The typically negative analysis from the Mail also finds a scapegoat in International Students, which includes those from the UAE, who, it claims, are receiving special treatment from British Universities as they chase the higher income they provide through international fees. The Mail claims that International Students are being given access to more courses and university options through clearing than UK home students, this disputed by many universities.
The Mail highlights advice to students to act quickly to enter Clearing because of the relative shortage of places available this year in the system.
You can read the Daily Mail’s full story here.
The National picks up on UK media reports that International Students may have an advantage this year because top British Universities are chasing the higher fees paid by students overseas. However, the National finds evidence countering this from Clare Marchant, chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. Mrs Marchant argues that the 13% of international students placed each year will not change significantly:
“And broadly, that [13%] percentage we don’t expect to change hugely come Thursday or the end of the cycle in October [and the the number of universities only opening courses in clearing to international students this year] was “broadly consistent with previous years”.
Read the National’s story here.
UCAS is reporting positive data from Scotland. Scottish students have seen a rise in the number of university acceptances for first choices:
“Figures released today for SQA results day (8 August), show 72% of young Scottish applicants, aged 19 and under, (18,780) have gained a place at their first choice university, up from 69% last year (18,680) and 65% in 2019 (15,670).
“In total, 30,050 Scottish students have been accepted, compared to 30,490 in 2022 (-1%) and up from 28,750 in 2019 (+5%).”
This suggests that universities are adapting to the grades awarded to students in this year’s cohort. The impact will be less pressure on Clearing than the worst case scenario painted by many pundits.
You can read the latest data from UCAS here.
Sky News is highlighting the different approaches of Examination Boards. Whilst English Examination Boards are expected to be harsh in their grading, in Wales and Northern Ireland, exam regulators have said they do not expect to return to pre-pandemic grading standards until 2024.
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), is highlighting a different issue. He believes that whilst it is likely that British Universities will adapt to the lower grades, UK employers may not. He argues that:
“While universities are steeped in the mechanics of different qualification systems and will adjust accordingly, this is not necessarily the case with employers, who will have differing levels of knowledge about these changes. The government must work with employer associations to disseminate clear information upon which recruiters can easily draw in assessing candidates.”
The UK’s Guardian newspaper quotes Gillian Keegan, Education Secretary, UK Government:
“I’m incredibly proud of all students receiving their results today. For many, this will have been the first set of formal exams they have ever taken, having faced unprecedented circumstances in the years building up to this summer.”
You can read The Guardian’s lead story here.
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