War on ‘unconditional’ university offers that pile pressure on students

UNIVERSITIES must end the ‘pressure selling’ of courses to students with unconditional offers, Education Secretary Damian Hinds will announce today.

He will order 23 institutions, including a member of the prestigious Russell Group, to stop using ‘unethical’ and ‘unacceptable’ recruitment methods.

Mr Hinds is also commissioning a wider review of university admissions, amid fears teenagers are coasting in A-levels as they are likely to be guaranteed places regardless of grades.

Last year, unconditional offers were made to a third of applicants as soaring numbers of students with poor results were recruited by universities competing to fill spaces.

Mr Hinds has singled out the practice of ‘conditional unconditional’ offers for criticism. This is when a university makes a conditional offer but, when a student agrees to make it their first choice, this is converted to an unconditional offer.

The minister will say the practice is ‘backing students into a corner’, and could even breach consumer protection laws.

He will write to 23 institutions ordering them to stop issuing such offers, including the University of Birmingham – a member of the Russell Group – as well as Nottingham Trent and Oxford Brookes. Nottingham Trent alone made 8,380 conditional unconditional offers to 18-year- olds from England, Northern Ireland and Wales last year.

‘It is unacceptable for universities to adopt pressure-selling tactics, which are harming students’ grades in order to fill places,’ Mr Hinds will say. ‘Conditional unconditional offers are damaging the reputation of the institutions involved and our world-leading sector as a whole.’

He will ask the higher education regulator, the Office for Students, to further examine the use of unconditional offers.

Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the OfS, said: ‘Admissions practices are clearly not working if they are having a negative impact on students’ choices or outcomes.’ Universities UK said it was already

‘Must be able to explain’

working with the admissions service Ucas to review existing guidance and ‘gain a better understanding of how these offers are being used’.

A spokesman added: ‘Universities must be able to explain why and how they award unconditional offers with conditions attached.’

The universities being written to are: Roehampton; Loughborough College; Kingston; Sheffield Hallam; Brighton; Birmingham City; Nottingham Trent; Bournemouth; Staffordshire; Lincoln; Hertfordshire; Royal Holloway; Oxford Brookes; Lancaster; Birmingham; Middlesex; Derby; West London; City; Keele; Kent; Aston; and Surrey.

Some say they have already stopped making conditional unconditional offers.