Do unconditional offers come from not so good unis ?

[JennyTals]

Or can you get them from RG units etc ?

Talk of Oxford is hugely misplaced. There are no EE offers now.

It’s always because unis need the bums on seats. Physics doesn’t have enough good candidates to go round so unis not in the top 10 will entice students. There are probably too many courses.

My niece and nephew got one each a few years back. She’s the conscientious type so did well at A level and at degree. He’s not so disciplined, didn’t put much effort into his a levels and scraped through his degree by the skin of his teeth, mostly thanks to Covid so they were more lenient and let him repeat a year.

dont think there are so many as about 10 years ago.

My son applied this year with grades in hand. Within just a few weeks he had unconditional offers from Edinburgh, Bristol and York.

DD got an unconditional offer from Kingston. She's turning it down to go to a more London-based uni.

Offers made on the basis of auditions, portfolios or grades in hand are not really Unconditional. They are Post Qualification Offers, like those old EE Oxford offers mentioned above.

Truly Unconditional Offers are always a marketing tool. I think they are a mistake as PP have explained. Strong Schools and Departments don’t need them and strong students tend to realise this.

Of course you're right, but it probably doesn't help that the wording used in the offers contains very clearly the term "unconditional" and that perpetuates this confusion.

I don't think when you apply with grades in hand it's the same thing as an unconditional offer - it's not really 'unconditional' as you have already met the conditions, so it's kind of a moot point.

Yes. That’s why the Complete Uni guide is useful. It looks at the various types. The ones dc get without taking any qualifying exams are unconditional if the A level requirements are waived. A portfolio is pre prepared and uni tutors view the work. So work has been done. They haven’t seen any A level school work (except at Oxford maybe) to make any judgement. They just have UCAS with predicted grades which are run through a computer. Then unconditional dc are selected. Most competitive courses and unis don’t give them.

Absolutely, unconditional because you've already fulfilled the conditions.

It was always EE but you would have to have passed their own entrance exam/interview. The EE was to ensure you got local authority funding for your fees

EE used to be a fairly standard offer from Oxford!

Well they probably wouldn't be some of the globally well regarded ones

OPs clearly talking about applying with just predicted grades.

What do you mean by 'globally well regarded'? Outside Oxbridge and some London institutions, I'm not sure there is any such thing...

UK well regarded I get, but not globally.

DS got an unconditional offer for a place on a high demand course at Edinburgh. I think it's more commonplace in Scotland.

In STEM we have some globally well regarded degree programmes.

As PP said, some Scottish unis will offer to Scottish applicants on the basis of Scottish Highers. I regard this as a Post Qualification Admission, a different thing.

So not Russell group

That's because he already had his grades.

Personally I think unconditional offers are a morally bankrupt manipulation from universities desperate to fill spaces. Often from ok, but not always great, unis (Lincoln etc mentioned above) to make students feel special.

( A special place in hell reserved for the unis who offer unconditional if you firm them though I think this has been stopped now. )

They encourage students to take their foot off the pedal and they are nothing less than a bribe. You’re only as good as your last qualification. If you coast at A levels because a uni has offered you unconditional and then get worse or poor grades than you could have achieved, those are your only qualifications to get you into a job until you graduate 3 years later. If you change your mind and don’t like uni or want to transfer to a different university you’re shafted. it’s highly manipulative marketing aimed at 17-18 year olds.

@thing47 Globally well-regarded is absolutely a thing. Eg QS world rankings which are important for UK unis wanting to attract high calibre overseas students.

Not sure I agree with this. It was nice for DS to have a relatively unpressured S6 year after working really hard in S4 and S5. He had enough common sense to know his advanced highers were still important, and did really well. It just took the stress out of it.

Sorry I obviously didn't make my point very well. Outside Oxbridge and London universities, which English universities are considered globally well regarded?

On MN we regularly see debates about the relative merits of Bristol, Durham and Exeter, for example. But do employers in Europe, America and elsewhere really know anything about them? I would need to see evidence of that to be convinced.

The QS rankings have so many caveats, that they arent a very good guide. They have a heavy bias towards institutions which are strong in STEM and they rely heavily on research papers as a metric - the importance of research to a teenage undergraduate is debatable. For a post-grad sure, huge difference because one of those researchers is likely to be your direct supervisor, but not necessarily the case during a first degree

You might very well be right @BobblyGreyJumper that they help attract overseas students.

@Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky Why would she apply anywhere wanting 4 grades below predictions? So dropping 1 grade in 2 A levels and 2 in the third? That’s low for insurance.

Loughborough, for sport if nothing else!

Very common to get unconditional offers in Scotland for students who have sat their exams in the penultimate year at school so know their grades when applying.