University offers can thwart pupils’ learning

♦sixth form pupils are being told by universities that they do not need to bother finishing their A-levels, an education chief has warned.

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth-form Colleges Association, told how teachers found the increase in unconditional offers – where university places were promised to pupils regardless of their A-level results – “extremely unhelpful”.

Last year, The Telegraph revealed that unconditional offers at some of Britain’s leading institutions had more than doubled in the past five years.

There is fierce competition among universities to attract students, with top institutions drastically lowering their entry grades to entice schoolleavers during the “clearing” process to fill their remaining places.

Admissions figures, obtained by The Telegraph under a series of freedom of information requests, revealed that there has been a rise in the number of unconditional places offered by several Russell Group universities in recent years.

Speaking at the Festival of Higher Education at the University of Buckingham yesterday, Mr Watkin said: “I understand why universities are doing this, but I would ask them to consider the implication on the mindset of 16- and 17-year-olds.”

He said the “significant” rise in unconditional offers had led to pupils being “less likely to feel a sense of urgency and determination to work flat out to get the very best grades in the final year of sixth-form study”.

Mr Watkin added that some universities had even written to pupils, encouraging them to leave school and take up foundation degrees, which are combined academic and vocational qualifications equivalent to two thirds of a bachelor’s degree.