Ucas warns against delaying applications until after results day

The UK’s main admissions body has pushed back on suggestions that university applicants could apply to courses after receiving their exam results by putting forward proposals for a “post-qualification offers” approach to reform of the higher education entry system.

In a new report, Ucas says it is proposing a model where prospective students apply to university as they do now – before taking their end-of-school exams – but that allows offers to be made after results are known.

However, it warns that the proposal needs to be considered alongside key challenges including how it would align with applications from international students; whether schools could properly support students in the post-results offer-making period; and how to “maintain the benefits of a cross-UK model for admissions”.

The report comes just a few weeks before the closure of a government consultation on the introduction of post-qualification admissions, which put forward two models for reform: post-qualification offers (PQO) or post-qualification applications, where prospective students apply after their results.

Ucas says that although it is backing PQO, it “strongly warned against any change that would see students making both applications and receiving offers after their exams in a pressured time frame, as this could lead to poorer quality decisions by students, and increase dropout rates”.

The admissions body says its proposals follow more than two years of “extensive engagement” on the issue, including asking thousands of applicants for their views. It adds that 70 per cent of students surveyed were “in favour of a system that still allows for applications to be made before exams”.

Clare Marchant, chief executive of Ucas, said it had “serious concerns about any model that would see all application and offer-making activity happen after exams, and thinks this would lead to an increase in dropout rates, particularly in disadvantaged groups – the exact opposite of what we are trying to achieve through reform”.

“It also runs the risk of making university offers purely about exam results, and not individuals, and isn’t inclusive of the full range of assessment techniques used, such as portfolios, auditions and interviews.”

She said that a PQO model would give students “the benefit of researching their options over an extended period, and making a decision at the point they are most informed”.

However, she said such an approach was “not without significant challenge” including requiring schools and colleges “to be available for longer during the summer” and how to avoid it affecting international student applications.

On this, the report says that there are various options, including continuing to allow international applicants to receive early offers; moving to the use of unconditional offers for such students; or introducing a national admissions test for international students.

simon.baker@timeshighereducation.com