To wish universities wouldn’t give out so many unconditional offers?

[LevelUp]

Dd is in Year 13 and applying to university.

She’s reasonably bright but has never been super-academic or interested in school. She has decent but not stellar predicted grades and ok GCSEs. She probably could have done better if she’d worked harder.

She struggled to decide what course to apply for at university (she’s never been particularly devoted to any of her subjects - she’s not someone who would go away and do extra reading) but eventually settled on modern languages.

She sent off her application at the end of October - to unis along the lines of Birmingham, Nottingham, Sheffield etc.

Within a month she had heard back from all 5, with four making her unconditional-if-firm offers and one (probably the highest scoring in league tables of the 5) offering her a place for AAA or BBB if firmed.

I’m quite concerned that without the pressure of needing to get the grades to get her place, she isn’t going to have any great motivation to try in her A-levels this summer. She already didn’t do much work over the Christmas holiday.

AIBU for wishing universities would get rid of these bribing ‘unconditional-if-firm’ offers? If they need to get bums on seats, could they not just be lenient on Results Day and let in students who miss their offers?

I also don’t really understand why they’d be happy to take her even if she bombed in her A-levels - as long as they were her firm choice - but they might end up refusing to take her if it was her insurance choice and she only missed the offer by one grade. If they’re so keen on her application that they want her whatever her A-levels then why doesn’t that hold true if they’re her insurance?

They've always been around it's just that they're more common now and some universities just offer them as standard.

My impression is that there are more unconditional offers from universities who struggle to attract applicants. I am happy to be corrected though.

Not always the case. It's just one of many marketing approaches that have been adopted across the sector

This type of thing totally devalues the whole system, a degree is worth a fraction of what it used to be. When you have unacademic school kids applying just because it's the thing to do. Total waste of 50k debt which will haunt them as a career-long tax.

In the op's daughter's position, leaving the unconditional offers aside, I would take 1 or 3 or 5 years out to live a little, travel, grow, and decide what I really was passionate about studying, if anything. Because with costs like these, you don't want to end up regretting your degree and wishing you'd done something else.

I think these types of practices will leave universities open to accusations of misselling and lead to legal challenges

Thanks Shalom and Blaa that makes sense, now.

The competitions and markets authority (CMA) already have a close eye on universities..... particularly around mis-selling.

@KeyboardplayerXXX - Those links show a heavy emphasis on predicted A-level grades and school/college references in decisions to make unconditional offers. Both of these are completely unreliable; basing offers on them is blatantly unfair - it will inevitably result in unconditional offers being made to students who are less good than others who don't get them - as well as encouraging students' parents to manipulate/bully schools into upping A-level predictions and polishing references. Any admissions department that discriminates between applicants on the basis of UCAS references should be closed down.

I find the rapid changes in higher education incredible. Things are changing so quickly it’s just ridiculous. The facts are in the UCAS end of cycle report. There is a section worth reading called “An analysis of unconditonal offer-making to 18 year olds from England, Northern Ireland, and Wales“ CLICK HERE

.info for 2018

Another interesting one for 2018. The change in the amount of unconditional offers made and taken up over the is remarkable.

It would be interesting to see the outcomes of the students who received uconditional offers.

One thing to remember when accepting an unconditional is that if you exceed your expected grades you are not eligible to take part in the ‘adjustment’ unlike students who have exceeded a conditional offers.

It would be interesting to see the outcomes of the students who received uconditional offers.

From the UCAS end of year report 2018

Is it to do with social engineering Flipf?

justasking
I don’t think so. I think it’s all to do with getting bums on seats.

The current UK University admissions procedure is broken and deeply unfair. It’s too dependant on predicted grades which are far more often wrong than right.

With the stress of five uni's looking at you an unconditional offer is awfully tempting. The stress of ucas form, waiting for responses, getting to interviews, is killing us here. Son has two interviews next week. He cancelled one this week. Was first day back at school. School had broken up before Xmas so his portfolio was not ready

FlipF (and others) - that UCAS report includes unconditional offers made to people who already have their results. Be careful not to draw the wrong conclusion...

Titchy, that’s true! Figure 4 was for 18 year olds so I think that would mean most of that group won’t have achieved results?? Is that right?

Titchy, Come to think of it I hadn’t actually reached any conclusions other than the number of unconditional offers has risen massively.

😌

I wonder if the increase in unconditional offers has been looked at in the government's report that's due to be published later this month?

inews.co.uk/news/education/university-tuition-fees-cut-theresa-may-6500/

@George Birmingham do take dropped grades on results day.

I work in professional services and the big firms wont interview people with bad a level results. They may take special circumstances into account but ultimately there is so little to differentiate you need excellent a level results and work experience/ uni interests. A degree isnt enough to get the jibs with good training schemes that will lead to good well paid careers.

However, it remains the case that applicants who hold an unconditional offer as their firm choice are more likely to miss their predicted A level grades by 2 or more points, compared to those who are holding a conditional offer as their firm choice.

From UCAS ^^
The same report also states that in 2018 the applicants predicted BBC were the most likely to receive unconditional offers, and that those predicted with higher grades were more likely to receive conditional unconditional offers.

It concludes by saying that many universities are tracking the progress and outcomes of students with unconditional offer and coparing them to students with conditional offers. They will use this information to assess the fututre use of unconditional offers.

Tell her taking foot off the gas now re-her language learning will make her learning in first year uni very much harder..