I've been out of education for a few years but plan on applying to university for entry next year as a mature student. The universities I'm interested in say that because they wouldn't receive automatic verification of my A-level grades like they would for a school leaver via UCAS, they would need me to provide them with certified copies electronically. However, I don't really understand what they mean by 'certified'.
One of the universities suggests getting my school (the one where I did my A-levels at) to either send them an email verifying that the scans of my certificates are in line with their records or to get my old school to send the scans and the email of certification themselves. But, I haven't been to my old school for a few years. Wouldn't it be odd to ask them to do that? And, how could they 'prove' that it was in line with their records? Would they have a record of my A-level results from a few years back? Do they keep such things?
Also, some other universities said they check or they can check with the exam board to verify such grades? If that's so, why would they require the arduous process of getting your old school involved to certify your grades? Generally speaking, do universities tend to accept the certification from your own school as sufficient proof without do anything else or do they always still go and check with the exam board? I'm not sure if them saying that they can check with the exam board is something that they'd only do if they had doubts about the legitimacy of the certificates or if they always do it anyway - in which case I personally think it's a waste of time having to get your old school involved when they can just easily do that.