[somethingbeautiful]

Very interesting article on the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/...s-process-rich

Are you in favour of the changes?

Personally I welcome it - my best friend went to a grammar school (I attended a comp) and she encouraged me to start thinking about university during year 11/12 and encouraged and early application. My school were pretty poor with regards to helping us make applications. Plus, the agonising wait for uni responses was awful - a change in that would put so many A-level students at ease I'm sure.

[sarahwarahbarah]

It makes me sad that when the government acknowledges that many state schools don't offer a good enough education or have the relevant knowledge to aid their pupils their solution is to create a system that merely lessens the disadvantage, rather than make any attempt to improve the state education system. It shouldn't be acceptable in a developed country for the government to accept failings in the school system. I think the changes to UCAS is just a case of painting over cracks, I can't see long term benefits to it.

[najabri]

(Original post by sarahwarahbarah)
It makes me sad that when the government acknowledges that many state schools don't offer a good enough education or have the relevant knowledge to aid their pupils their solution is to create a system that merely lessens the disadvantage, rather than make any attempt to improve the state education system. It shouldn't be acceptable in a developed country for the government to accept failings in the school system. I think the changes to UCAS is just a case of painting over cracks, I can't see long term benefits to it.

I disagree - is it not better to make a small positive change than do nothing? The government can't just click their fingers and turn under-performing schools into institutions of excellence overnight. I personally think that this system is interesting, as you apply after you get your A levels. However, I think I'd dislike only being able to apply to 2 universities - many top universities will reject you not because your A levels aren't good enough, but because you had a bad day on their individual entrance exam / the interview didn't go too well, etc.

At the end of the article it said this would be debated between then and 20th January... I wonder what came of it. Still, it won't affect me personally if it doesn't come into place til 2016.

[Square]

ffs, can the guardian go 24 hours without writing some tripe about universities loving rich kids?


reading this article, it is garbage, because independent schools encourage their pupils to apply earlier the entire system should be changed? why not just encourage state school pupils to apply earlier? The entire UCAS system is uniform across all applications, everyone can apply to wherever they like whenever they like within the admissions timeline. It is about as level a playing field as you can get, but still some champagne socialist who probably went to a private school themselves and then Oxford writes this absolute steaming pile of horse turd excuse for journalism.

That paper really is turning into a rag, often just to placate the views of the deluded morons who post in the comments sections below.

[purplefrog]

How would that admissions process work for places like Oxbridge and a lot of medicine/vetsci/dentistry courses where their admissions policy is to interview candidates to assess them before giving out offers. There is definitely not enough time to shortlist candidates from the thousands that apply, give them an interview date and offer/rejection between late July and October. Most medical schools take months to interview enough candidates to give offers out to fill their quota.

I like the idea of everybody applying after results - that would eliminate the inconsistancies between candidates and predictions (some schools being ultra-strict whereas others prediction grade As to people with Ds at AS etc.). Just not sure how feasible that is for unis/depts as mentioned above.

[Mbob]

(Original post by purplefrog)
How would that admissions process work for places like Oxbridge and a lot of medicine/vetsci/dentistry courses where their admissions policy is to interview candidates to assess them before giving out offers. There is definitely not enough time to shortlist candidates from the thousands that apply, give them an interview date and offer/rejection between late July and October. Most medical schools take months to interview enough candidates to give offers out to fill their quota.

I like the idea of everybody applying after results - that would eliminate the inconsistancies between candidates and predictions (some schools being ultra-strict whereas others prediction grade As to people with Ds at AS etc.). Just not sure how feasible that is for unis/depts as mentioned above.

They could just scrap "Predicted Grades" for anyone who is doing A Levels and get you to report your AS results instead.

[chrislpp]

(Original post by sarahwarahbarah)
It makes me sad that when the government acknowledges that many state schools don't offer a good enough education or have the relevant knowledge to aid their pupils their solution is to create a system that merely lessens the disadvantage, rather than make any attempt to improve the state education system. It shouldn't be acceptable in a developed country for the government to accept failings in the school system. I think the changes to UCAS is just a case of painting over cracks, I can't see long term benefits to it.

There is nothing wrong with Eton, ask the Cabinet, they all went there.

[Lintu93]

(Original post by Mbob)
They could just scrap "Predicted Grades" for anyone who is doing A Levels and get you to report your AS results instead.

I quite like this idea. It reminds me a bit of the Scottish system where you can apply with highers (which are often achieved in the penultimate year of school rather than the final year).

[purplefrog]

(Original post by Mbob)
They could just scrap "Predicted Grades" for anyone who is doing A Levels and get you to report your AS results instead.

But you get some (mainly independent) schools which do all their AS and A2 exams in the summer of year 13 (London Oratory School is one of the few state schools that come to mind that do this) and then they wouldn't have any data to input. But yes, that too can work

[Mbob]

(Original post by purplefrog)
But you get some (mainly independent) schools which do all their AS and A2 exams in the summer of year 13 (London Oratory School is one of the few state schools that come to mind that do this) and then they wouldn't have any data to input. But yes, that too can work

Yes, the disadvantage would be that all schools would have to do AS levels in Year 12.

Another possibility is the Irish System. Everyone lists up to say, 10, universities that they would like to attend in order of preference. After A level results are published, everyone is ranked from highest to lowest and those who come out top get their first choice, and others get the their highest choice that isn't filled up.

Obviously it would need a lot of changes in practice, including developing an exam system which would more accurately reflect potential performance at university, so probably not very viable.

[StarsAreFixed]

Changing to the CAO system is not viable at all. It works great here, but we only have 70,000 applicants and 7 universisties and about 25 other colleges- some tiny private ones and. We also have an extremely specific points system- we don't end up with loads of people applying for the same course on the same points. Very competitive courses do have this problem, but the vast vast majority don't encounter it.

To me using personal statements and predicted grades sounds mental, with a huge potential to be unfair. However I can see that only using real grades like we do would not be able to cope and give out places in the allotted timeframe- also there would be far far too many people with the same grades.

[Sovr'gnChancellor£]

(Original post by Square)
ffs, can the guardian go 24 hours without writing some tripe about universities loving rich kids?


reading this article, it is garbage, because independent schools encourage their pupils to apply earlier the entire system should be changed? why not just encourage state school pupils to apply earlier? The entire UCAS system is uniform across all applications, everyone can apply to wherever they like whenever they like within the admissions timeline. It is about as level a playing field as you can get, but still some champagne socialist who probably went to a private school themselves and then Oxford writes this absolute steaming pile of horse turd excuse for journalism.

That paper really is turning into a rag, often just to placate the views of the deluded morons who post in the comments sections below.

Jolly ho, chap! You hit the nail right on the head!

Shall we now hunt some game?