University 2020 :4: The wait for grades and better days ahead

[MillicentMartha]

New thread for us. Interesting times.

Old thread here

It's such a worry isn't it? My DS is keen to begin his course this September. Obviously he would rather start 'in the flesh' so he can get stuck in to university life but knows he may have to accept an online start instead.

Wednesday not Monday - still, final version shouldn't be long in coming.

I know my school have already ranked their students for most subjects as they have plenty of data. They are trusting the heads of department to give the grades as well, keeping in mind the school’s previous performance and the ability of this year group. The teachers know the students well and their backstories, ie those who have extra time or have been working hard recently etc. Obviously adjustments might be made once the detailed guidance is out.

My own DS goes to a different school and doesn’t do physics and I am very relieved about that, avoids any potential bias or extra worry.

Yes I'd expect most schools to have already ranked, just waiting on the details in case anything needs tweaking.

I have not gone through all the guidelines.. Dds upper sixth is about 60 ish girls this year.. It was probably a lot higher in previous years 80 plus.. So not sure how they will treat changes in size of cohort.. There are a number of girls whose parents teach within the Trust which includes a coed and boys school.. So must be difficult for the teachers especially when their DC take the same subject.

DD21 had confirmation on whats happening with her Btech, she will be getting her predicted grades, we are very proud of her with her D*DD, shes worked so hard this year and her grades show this.

What's she going to do next Frenchy? Sorty if I've missed a post.

She's going to Portsmouth to do marine biology

She can spend her days spotting cruise ships moored off Sandown Bay. Congrats to your DD on a fine set of results.

That’s great news FrenchyQ! I wish they’d do the same for DS2’s HND. He was on course to pass, had passed all the components up until lockdown but he has to complete the rest with online teaching at home. The teaching has been patchy, one lecturer is great, has done a few Microsoft Teams lessons, another just emails powerpoints and a third hasn’t been in touch at all. DS2 has ASD and is really struggling with working from home.

Ahh congratulations to your DD @Frenchy that's brilliant news!

I wonder what happens for students whose parents teach in the same school? DS has one friend whose dad is head of year and another who is head of English (and the boy is doing English)! Surely they’ll see the rankings and grades in the system?

@other1 anyone related to a student can take no part in setting the grades. Which is complicating things but we are managing.

Someone at DS’s school will have to rank the HeadMaster’s son 😂

Thinking about it that presumably means he can’t sign off the submission and that will fall to someone else.

Yes Oratory - there is guidance to say that the Exams officer would have to sign in the Head's Place

Dd applied for some finance yesterday.

Did you see the bbc news headline that the gov says students will have to pay full fees in sept even if courses are taught online? I guess they have had a lot of pressure from unis to get that message out. I wonder what the students will do though?!

It makes me despair when people think they shouldn't have to pay. They will still be studying and the uni will still have all their overheads to pay. Hopefully most students are intelligent to realise this.

It’s because the costs vary so much. Open uni courses are cheaper, German courses are cheaper. It’s long been discussed that science courses are considered better value than some arts courses. Of course this is going to be discussed.

Here is that news.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-52506283

I guess for me it is more important that the university is still in existence at the end of the degree course so that DC gets a degree rather than fight for a discount which may lead to a uni going under and that discounted fee count for nothing. Some were at tipping point anyway and with the lack of international fees which subsidise home fees anyway and a gap on the number of students unis can take who knows how many will join those in trouble.

Cap not gap!!

By better value do you mean more contact hours? It does not make it better value. The nature of the degrees are totally different. There needs to be fewer hours for the arts/humanities/law to allow the student to do their pre-reading. This is such a non argument.

The gov have been discussing reducing fees for say English and upping fees for lab courses for years. Not my discussion! I’m an arts grad - I value the arts. I’m not saying course fees should be cut - I’m saying why are we surprised that students are discussing it (raging about it would be more accurate).

My dd is planning to do a science course and I am hopeful it will be good value. My younger one is more drama focused and I’d be very worried about that at the moment.

5% extra places - Do we think that this is just to fill up the unused international places or 5% extra altogether?

If the latter, there will be a lot of drift up in Clearing and might cause the end of the Universities who historically give the lowest offers?

Isn’t it because some unis over-offer? Eg Cambridge now might have more students meeting their grades than expected? So will want to take them all to fill the international gaps which will impact on ‘less desirable’ places?