We have been discussing on another thread the likelihood that there will be post qualification admission within seven years in the context of somebody contemplating medicine as a possible career. And that made question how it is all supposed to work for medicine.
The proposed University Alliance timetable has applications being made in the week commencing 1st August, and applicants receiving their decisions by 3rd September. To balance this out, they allow for applications to 12 different courses.
For medicine, that would seem to mean that almost all medical schools will have a tripling of applicants, as one of the biggest restrictions on the number of applicants to medical schools is the one is only allowed to apply to four medical schools. If my DS had had the option of 12, he would have applied to 12, as it really doesn't matter where you study medicine, the most important thing is getting a place somewhere. He comfortably overachieved his predicted grades, so applying grades in hand would have made absolutely no difference to him. Just about every other medical applicant will feel similarly. So unless the proposal is that of those 12, only 4 can be medical schools (in which case, those determined upon medicine will actually only apply for four).
So assuming they can apply for 12, how in hell could the medical schools deal with a triple more applicants and work out who to interview, knowing that every single one of those applicants have the grades in hand to be accepted - and then interview, rank on interview, and offer in a month? How are they going to find the staff willing to give up their entire August to do this (given that the presumably teach the rest of the year, and have traditionally had holidays like everybody else in August)?
Oxbridge presumably will have a similar issue - although they do usually interview within a few weeks. But most of the students they interview, the Oxbridge interview is their only interview (unlike with medicine, where they might need to have applicants zig zagging up and down the country, assuming they want to go back to in person interviews) . And presumably Oxbridge will, regardless, have run their HATs and PATs and other entrance exams earlier in the year, so will have a better idea (probably a damn good idea) of whom they will offer interviews to by the time the grades come out (even if no formal application is received, they will know the identity and numbers who have sat their HAT and PAT etc - and who therefore will be applying if they get the grades). So they will be able to effectively draw up a list and just drop those who don't get the grades.
Unless the proposal would be that everybody uses UCAT or BMAT as their only criteria - and they will assume that each one of the eg 37,000 people who sat UCAT will apply if they get the grades, and they will simply take from the top.
Has anybody given any serious consideration to how it would work?