15,000 students now meet university offer conditions

19 August 2020, 21:36

The exam results fiasco caused students to take to London's streets to protest
The exam results fiasco caused students to take to London's streets to protest. Picture: PA
Nick Hardinges

By Nick Hardinges

Roughly 15,000 prospective students who were rejected by their first-choice university will now meet their offer conditions following the U-turn on A-Level grades.

British universities have "exercised flexibility", according to Ucas (the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service), after the organisation analysed the results from the four largest awarding bodies for 160,000 students who received upgraded A-Level results in England.

They showed that roughly 100,000 pupils had already secured a place at their first-choice university on results day last Thursday.

Of the remaining 60,000 students, around a quarter will now meet the A-Level offer conditions of their original first choice university, Ucas said.

Seven per cent of those 15,000 people were from disadvantaged backgrounds, it was found.

Ucas added that 90 per cent of these students made their original firm choice at a higher tariff institution.

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The organisation's chief executive Clare Marchant said: "It's clear from this data that universities have already exercised flexibility when making their original confirmation decisions and have looked closely at the backgrounds of students.

"We are all focused on supporting the 15,000 students who now meet their conditions of entry and may want to make a different decision and take up a place at their original first choice university."

Webinars are being set up for teacher and advisers on Thursday and students can get help via a Facebook Live chat on Friday.

For students holding other qualifications, such as Btecs, Ucas is working with awarding bodies to process these results "to ensure students can make decisions as soon as possible", Ms Marchant added.