Higher grades needed to acquire entry into top universities

Yesterday the Guardian ran an interesting article about entry requirements for university. The article can be read here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/jan/25/universities-insist-top-grades

It reveals that top universities, whereas previously required straight A’s at A-levels, will now only allow entry to those who achieve the elite A* grade for certain courses. Universities that are based in London such as University College London (UCL) and Imperial College London have increased the number of courses requiring the top grade.

The A* grade requirement was introduced last year in order to allow universities to be even more academically selective. It is used to pick out exceptional students who achieve A* as more than a quarter of A-level entries receive A grades. For a student to obtain A*, he/she must achieve 90% in the second year of their A-level studies.

The introduction and requirement of the new grade has provoked considerable controversy, with critics claiming that students from private schools have an advantage over students from comprehensive schools. Last year’s A-level results show that the percentage of pupils attending private schools who achieved the A* grade was 17.9% while only 5.8% from comprehensive schools did so. The universities offer a conditional placement to students who have been predicted A* grades only. In private schools, it is said that teachers deal with ‘hot-house’ students whereas in comprehensive schools, the students’ academic abilities vary. In this sense, students in private schools are more likely to be offered a placement than those in comprehensive schools as their chances of being predicted A* grades are higher.

As the fees are going to rise in 2012, there are more applicants this year than previous years. UCAS applications for 2011 have increased by 2.5% with 335, 795 applicants therefore the only way for universities to deal with this increase is to introduce an even more competitive process of selection. However with the fees rising and entry into university becoming more difficult, it is inevitable to wonder whether these changes will have a negative impact on the number of people going to university in the future.