How can you find out if a Uni makes offers lower than their standard published offer?

[Lurgano]

And can you find out how many of these they give out each year?

It is sensitive information so they will probably be pretty reticent about passing on the information even if they know in advance. And that is quite unlikely because in many cases the number of lower offers will depend on the number of students coming - if there is a shortfall they may 'top up' a bit more than usual.

You can't.

And they won't know in advance either. Decisions are made when they get the results (Sunday before applicants get them.)

If a university has a Widening Participation (or Widening Access) Scheme then part of this may be giving lower offers to disadvantaged pupils. This does however need to be done in a way that is fair to all applicants and so it is unlikely that any numbers will be published. The details of the scheme that uni uses and possible criteria will probably be on the university website.

Assuming you are talking about offers made within the applications process (as opposed to requirements being lowered after exam results published) broadly speaking "no". That said Birmingham and Leicester have both been quite open about making a significant number of unconditional offers, however I'd suggest in the main these are going to the already advantaged DCs with very strong GCSE / AS results and A2 predictions.

There are plenty of anecdotes on the Yr13 threads about DCs being enticed with an unconditional if they firm an offer from a particular Uni. However they are just that - anecdotes - not to be confused with hard data.

if a Uni has a standard A*AA offer I don't think their is anyway of knowing how many AAA offers, or AAB offers etc they choose to make - if any. And even if this info was available it would not necessarily reflect what might happen in the next application cycle. I'm not quite sure what use such information would be even if it were available.

You won't know. The university won't know. It will vary from year to year, depending on uptake, applicants, etc.

Thanks everyone for that - I meant lower offers at application stage rather than clearing. I do know of two applicants who were offered unconditional from Birmingham - both far from disadvantaged and neither had stellar GCSE results or predictions one of which sat back after his unconditional offer and surprise surprise did not do well at all.

DD knew someone with a lower than standard offer. However she represented the Country in a sport the University excelled in.

1 university that DD had an interview at told us they would only make slightly lower offers to students that had lower predicted grades. They said that if they offered ABB to a student who was predicted AAA, then that student would most likely use them as an insurance choice instead of putting them firm, so they obviously would not make them a lower offer.

There's no short answer here, as it will vary across institution, department and year of entry.

As mentioned above, consideration may be given to students identified as 'disadvantaged' according to Widening Participation criteria; although it's not always easy to find, universities should have this information posted on their central admissions/outreach websites. This tends to centre upon the economic status of the household (below a circa 25k threshold), and/or whether they originate from a so-called 'low participation neighbourhood'.

Otherwise, it will simply come down to case-by-case decisions made by admissions tutors once all applications are in.