University admissions process is loaded against state school kids: Jayne Dowle
My heart goes out to every other parent and student obsessively checking their phones, waiting for emails to drop or driving nervously to collect results.
In all my years of parenting Lizzie and her brother through education, I’ve never experienced such an anxiety-inducing time.
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Hide AdWe’re normally quite pragmatic about grades, but for the estimated 275,000 students who take A Levels every year, this moment, results day, is likely to shape the entire course of their life.


As Lizzie and I have oft lamented, there has to be a better way. The present A Levels/university admission system is as labyrinthine as a particularly devious game of snakes and ladders.
Conditional offers, which rely on students achieving a certain set of A Level grades in order to gain a university place, sound sensible in theory and certainly encourage ambitious youngsters to work hard for two years.
However, there is a strong argument for turning the whole process on its head; surely it would make more sense, cut stress for students and university staff and save a lot of time and money visiting prospective universities, to apply for a university place when you know exactly how you’ve done in your exams?
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Hide AdThis would give a fairer chance to bright kids from less than privileged backgrounds, who could confidently apply to a prestigious university with a glittering set of A*s, rather than setting their sights lower because they are crippled by the self-doubt state education can breed.
Added to the above, if a student narrowly misses meeting their offer by one grade or so, they are encouraged to phone up their chosen university and persuade the admissions tutor to let them in – or get their sharp-elbowed parent to do it.
I’m pleased that the university my daughter wants to go to won’t accept admissions phone calls; entreaties to be allowed in with less than their conditional offer must be done by live chat. Presumably, this gives everyone a fairer and fighting chance. Not just those with posh voices able to marshal an argument that would convince an Old Bailey judge.
One thing I’ve learned, as a parent, during this whole nail-biting process, is that the current A Level system is a huge indicator of social injustice, marking class and regional divides and highlighting stark differences between state and independent schools.
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Hide AdIt’s not gone unnoticed in government either. Chancellor Rachel Reeves got some stick for cancelling former PM Rishi Sunak’s planned overhaul of A Levels and their technical equivalent T Levels in favour of a five-subject baccalaureate-style qualification called the Advanced British Standard (ABS).
Sunak had overlooked putting aside the estimated £200m required to pay for the whole thing, and the country can’t afford it. I’m glad Reeves shelved the five subjects plan; there aren’t enough sixth-form college teachers as it is. My daughter’s friend, taking A Level Geography, did two whole years without an actual Geography teacher, instead relying on supply cover and online self-tuition.
Speaking ahead of today’s A Level results, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who went to a co-ed Catholic comprehensive in Washington, Tyne and Wear, has accused the Conservatives of leaving behind a legacy of regional “disparities” in educational outcomes and an attainment gap between private-school pupils and their peers in state schools.
She pledges to turn around “baked in” educational inequalities.
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Hide AdThese are especially marked by a North/South divide. Last year, in terms of the proportion of A-level entries awarded A* and A, there was a staggering 8.3 percentage point difference between students in south-east England (30.3 per cent) and north-east England (22.0 per cent).
Recent figures from Ucas show that only 33.4 per cent of 18-year-olds in north-east England had applied to university by June 30, compared with 59.2 per cent of 18-year-olds in London.
And last year, 22 per cent of A-level entries at comprehensives in England were awarded grades of A or above, compared with 47.4 per cent at independent schools – a gap of 25.4 percentage points, according to exams regulator Ofqual.
Sir Ian Bauckham, Ofqual’s chief regulator, describes the regional and disadvantage gaps in academic outcomes as a “scandal”.
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Hide AdUniversity is a risk, that is true. And it’s not for everyone. Student living costs are prohibitive, the system is creaking whilst highly-paid vice chancellors earn way more than the Prime Minister, and courses are being axed, but it should still be an option open to all who wish to pursue it.
It’s too late for our Lizzie, her fate will be sealed by now. But for all those other state school kids from less advantaged parts of the UK who come up behind her, and all their parents too, I hope that this Labour government is brave and bold enough to smash apart higher education and start again.
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