‘Conditional unconditional’ offers to be banned
CONTROVERSIAL “CONDITIONAL unconditional” university offers will be banned until September next year in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, under new rules announced by an education regulator.
The offers give students a place – regardless of their A-level grades – on condition they make the university their firm first choice.
But updated rules from the Office
for Students (OfS) prohibits any university from giving out the offers or making false or misleading statements to discourage students from attending other institutions. Universities which breach them could be fined more than £500,000.
The condition has been introduced in consultation with the higher education sector and is a temporary response to the coronavirus pandemic, with a fixed end date, according to the OfS.
The new rules also still allow universities to make “contextual offers” to students from disadvantaged or under-represented backgrounds, who may get lower grades than required, to recognise the different circumstances around their results.
The chief executive of the OfS, Nicola Dandridge, said: “Our concerns are even more acute in these exceptional times with the shape of the next few months and years still very unpredictable, and information, advice and guidance less readily available than it may normally be.
“However, we have ensured that the condition explicitly permits unconditional and contextual offers that are clearly in students’ interests, and which support the transition into higher education for the most disadvantaged students.”
She added the “necessary and proportionate” changes were designed to “avoid instability” during the pandemic and would not continue past September 2021.
The move comes amid a sharp rise in “conditional unconditional” offers. Data published by Ucas earlier this year showed that in 2019 there were 35 universities and colleges where at least one per cent of offers made were “conditional unconditional”. Critics have condemned the practice due to concerns they encourage students not to work hard to get the best A-level results.
‘Our concerns are even more acute in these exceptional times.’