Thousand set to miss top university choice

TENS of thousands of students could miss out on their first choices for university in what is likely to be the most competitive year ever for courses. The proportion of pupils receiving top grades could fall by almost 10 percentage points since last year, when students were given grades determined by teachers rather than exams due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham said there could be 80,000 fewer top grades.