Today we are going to discuss applicants’ the most important education document – academic transcripts. This document is in the list of requirements for University enrollment. In an interview, Gavin Williamson stated that all students should rely on their actual grades and apply into their desired Universities.
At the moment future students are offered places before they know their academic results due to the fact that teachers predict their grades. As for Universities, they support the idea and a big change in the enrollment process. There are also A-level and BTEC students who get their results in August and their final decision on the offers is made in August.
University College London found that 23% of pupils from comprehensives did not get those several important grades at the end of the term compared to just 11% of grammar and private school pupils. Therefore comes a question about how this innovation would work with Universities’ selection systems where students still apply before their school exams and receive offers at the end. There is one more radical option to move intakes back to January only for first year students. Education adviser Mr Williamson explains his point of view in helping some group of students to have confidence to aim for a highly selective university. This change comes after the argument over post – qualification admissions.
Predicted grades are limiting the student’s aspiration before they know what they can achieve. There is a need to build a system that will affect low aspiration and unfairness. Hopefully this admission method will motivate pupils to enroll and get higher education. The system realization where they issue offer letters after students have received their results could put an end to the soaring use of unconditional offers, which makes students to accept an offer letter that is not in their interest and could leave them unprepared for the university study.
The plan has received a warm welcome from vice-chancellors’ organisation, Universities UK, who had resolved to move to post qualification admissions following an 18-months review. Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said in his interview that even though teachers work hard and diligently to put predicted grades, it is not an exact science and never can be. Post-qualification accesses would be fairer.