1 in 3 students don’t need to make grade

Unconditional university offers up from 1% to 34% in 5 years

the number of unconditional offers made to budding university students has rocketed to record levels, incentivising them to slack off in their a-level exams.

New figures show more than a third of students received an unconditional offer in 2018 – up from a quarter last year and just one per cent in 2013.

the incredible rise has been driven by desperate universities competing to snap up as many students as they can – and the money that comes with them – regardless of whether they end up getting good a-level grades.

the data also shows students who get unconditional offers are more likely to miss their predicted grades than those who receive conditional ones.

the figures, released by admissions body Ucas, show a-level results are becoming increasingly irrelevant to university entry.

Critics say the practice amounts to dumbing down entry standards, as teenagers no longer have to meet the rigorous grades previously required by universities.

the report yesterday prompted education Secretary Damian hinds to call on the Office for Students (OfS) regulator to crack down on prolific offenders. he said: ‘this report shows that many students could be distracted from the final year of their schooling and achieve a-Level grades lower than they are capable of.

‘the systematic use of unconditional

offers is not in the interest of students.’

Data shows 87,540 – 34.4 per cent – of 18-year-olds in england, Wales and Northern Ireland applying for a place

next year had at least one unconditional offer, up from 25.9 per cent this year and 1.1 per cent in 2013.

the trend is due to the removal of the cap on the number of

students universities can recruit. Matt Waddup, head of policy at the University and College Union, said: ‘Unconditional offers have made a mockery of exams.’

‘A mockery of exams’