Yesterday A Level results were released leading to the normal outcry of ‘it was harder in my day’ and another year of record achievement. This year, however, there is a twist in the argument; a larger number of applications made for fiercer competition leaving many applicants without places.
The BBC are perhaps the worst for spreading this. One of their articles is titled ‘University 'will be denied to 150,000 students’. No where in the article do they show where the ‘denied’ has been quoted from.
In any case, the figures speak for themselves and show much of the reporting to be sensationalist. The Chief Executive of UCAS – the organisation responsible for matching places with students – said that around 70,000 (of the 150,000 that have been ‘denied’ places) have opted out of their insurance choice. This says that many applicants placed all of their faith in their first choice and only paid lip service to their second choice ‘insurance’ application. They seemingly did not plan ahead as they were advised to do. This is even more worrying considering that students can apply for multiple courses before declaring their first and second choice. With such a high proportion opting out it is hard to sustain that myth that 150,000 are being ‘denied’ a university education.
Ed Balls has been spinning his normal message as well. In an interview with Simon MaCoy he said ‘it is obviously disappointing that compared to our plans there will be 10,000 fewer places’; completely ignoring that this year there are, in fact, still 10,000 more places available than last year. Even if Labour were still in power the extra 10,000 barely dents the 150,000 applicants who have been ‘denied’ places. That these extra places would be on science based courses that are not currently full (dealt with below) also suggests that even if there had been an additional 10,000 places available then there is no guarantee they would be filled. Spin at its best.
Although, from the deluge of raw evidence a more worrying trend is visible; that many top universities are still not filling their places. There has been much hype of several universities not offering clearing places. Unprecedented, perhaps, but not a true reflection of the overall picture. At 1500 the day after results day, the UCAS clearing website, which lists all available courses, is still showing many courses from Russell Group Universities. The Russell Group, made from the top 20 Universities, would surely be looking to extend offers to the 150,000 ‘denied’ applicants. Especially as 22% of them will have the new A* grade.
Perhaps commentators need to take into account the types of courses people are applying for. There are science and engineering vacancies through the Russell Group, and the UCAS clearing site also shows a large number of language courses available.
In part this reduces that number of overall places as many students will not have the prerequisite language qualifications. However, for science based courses there can be no excuse with biology entries up 4.3%, chemistry up 3.7% and physics up by 5.2%. Even this rise, it seems, have not been sufficient to fill the science based university courses at out universities.
Part of the reason that so many young people are shunning university is that they (finally) may have cottoned on that it has been mis-sold. A decade of New Labour spin telling students that they will earn up to £400,000 a year more with a degree and the 50% target have placed un-realistic expectations upon degrees. The current review into university funding, led by Lord Brown, has downgraded this to £100,00. I recently spoke to a careers advisor who was increasingly frustrated that schools were only advising students to go to university; instead of looking to place them where their skills and ability were best suited.
Ed Balls shows himself to be further from the mark when he states ‘it is important too to expand the number of graduates’. Is it really? What is wrong on the job learning? His governments target of 50% of students attending university has, it seems, forced people to forget and undermine other routes.
The Labour Government has to answer for forcing students into this situation. The case of Das Bikramjit Gakhal illustrates that for young people it takes a strong will to avoid entering the university sausage machine. In this case, the student researched his own options are decided to learn on the job and will, in three years time, be in a similar position to his graduate peers only without the £25,000 debt. Not a bad deal.
Overall, the debate around university and A levels is coming to a climax. As a society the question of how many graduates we need has been answered this year, but this was because of competition for places rather than any government plan.
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