Students still missing out on places despite grades
Some uni courses like medicine at capacity before U-turn
SOME students could still be denied a place at Birmingham universities even though they have the required grades, following the Government’s U-turn over the Alevels debacle.
The universities of Aston and Birmingham are among those affected and managers say some courses, such as medicine, have a firm limit on the number of students that can be accepted.
It will make it impossible to promise that everyone who achieved the required grades will be admitted.
It follows Monday’s decision to award A-levels based entirely on assessments by teachers. This will lead to a significant increase in the number of students getting top grades. The decision came after some universities had already filled up places on courses such as medicine and dentistry.
Sapreena Kumari, Aston University’s director of admissions, student recruitment and outreach, said: “We are incredibly lucky within our region to have four universities and many further education colleges offering degree level courses, so on the whole I do believe the majority of students will be placed.
“For some courses there are more students than places, but these are courses with external factors and caps such as medicine, pharmacy and optometry.
“I believe every university is working incredibly hard to provide students with a place on a course, should there not be space restrictions or health and safety considerations at place.”
Students were initially awarded A-Level grades last Thursday based on a mixture of teacher assessments and a computer algorithm.
Universities began accepting students who had achieved the required grades, and in some cases offered spare places to students who came close. But on Monday, the Gov- ernment announced that grades would instead be based entirely on teacher assessments. It meant many pupils saw their marks significantly increased.
Based on the assessments, 38 per cent of A-Level grades this year are an A or A*. This is up by 12 per cent compared to last year, a huge increase.
The Government has lifted a cap which is usually in place and limits the number of students each university is allowed to admit. But there are still some courses where the number of places is limited, including those which require specialist facilities or equipment.
The University of Birmingham said it would “review its capacity” to see whether it could admit every student that had achieved the grades in their offer.
A spokesperson for the University of Birmingham said: “We will honour the offers that we have made to students and would like to assure all students who have already had their place at the University of Birmingham confirmed that their place is safe – we will not change these decisions.
“In addition we will also honour our offer of a place to those students who had accepted an offer to study with us but did not initially secure a place, if they now meet the terms of their offer as a result of the change to Centre Assessed Grades.
“The only exceptions are where the number of places are externally capped and/or where we are reliant on external placements which are limited in number. In these instances we will review our capacity and confirm to students once we have received their updated results from UCAS.”
The Medical Schools Council, which represents medical schools nationwide, said that many universities had already filled every available place before the Government’s A level U-turn.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson acknowledged that universities faced challenges after the U-turn.
He said: “We’ve set up a task force with the university sector – how we can boost its capacity, not just boosting its capacity for this year, but also looking at how we can boost its capacity for next year.
“We recognise some of the real challenges that universities face. We know that there’s a clear expectation that is on universities for them to welcome in so many youngsters who have achieved those grades. We’re working with those universities to ensure that they’re able to welcome as many youngsters to them as possible.”
Mr Williamson added: “We’re going to have a record year of the number of people who are going to university and we’ll work with the sector to ensure they have as much capacity.”