Huge rise in unconditional offers

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It's a great shame to the British. People all over the world won't have any regard for the British graduate. The universities are desperate to fill places otherwise professors will be made redundant.

More importantly the Vice Chancellor won't be able to have an eye watering ng pay rise.

Reply 81

Shalleos

Original post by mojojojo101

So they are giving unconditional offers to students who 5 years a go they wouldn't have done so.

Why they are doing so is the question, I get why students want to avoid the stress of conditional offers and potentially being in clearing, why the universities are offering is what interests me.

Part of the reason is that in the early 2000s the birth rate hit an all time low, so there's less competition for places resulting in a rise in unconditional offers.

Reply 82

nulli tertius

Original post by Joinedup

More importantly the Vice Chancellor won't be able to have an eye watering ng pay rise.

I think that you have overlooked the text of the Kipling verses erected on the university walls:-

"As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Vice Chancellor will receive an eye watering pay rise!"

Reply 83

Pretzelite

Original post by e^iπ

So one piece of anecdotal evidence is enough to justify your position?

Let's bit beat around the bush, unis nowadays are businesses and in order to compete, they need to get as many students in their course as possible and giving out unconditionals does just that. They are lowering g standards to get funding plain and simple.

And your outstanding piece of evidence for that assertion is...?

Reply 84

nts24

There has been no cap in the number of students for the last two years and it also correlates with the rise in unconditional offers. Not only that but the way they are given out such that students have to firm that offer for it to be made unconditional. The Guardian has a series of articles about this recently

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/27/universities-market-unconditional-offers

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jul/26/rise-in-unconditional-offers-prompts-call-for-university-admissions-overhaul

https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2018/jul/26/universities-are-bribing-students-with-unconditional-offers

It is on the up and it has affected students’ grades already since quite a lot of students are not working as hard since they know they have an unconditional offer already.

It was the same back in the day when some of us had reduced offer from Oxbridge. Imagine being 17, 18 and knowing that you only needed 2E to go to Cambridge, would you slog your way to get 3A or chill out and still get AAB or ABB. I know what I would have done :smile:

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 85

anxiughty

The US is mostly about unconditional offers (tho they do base it off your SAT/ACT and GPA even if you’re taking APs that year tou applied too) and if they do badly then they’d be able to retract their offer so, no, i don’t think it lessens the worth of a university place, however I do think that if it becomes “unconditional,” there should be some policy regarding missing your grades by a lot.

Reply 86

nts24

Original post by anxiughty

there should be some policy regarding missing your grades by a lot.

Then that is just a lower conditional offer, no?

Reply 87

Clwclw

Original post by anxiughty

however I do think that if it becomes “unconditional,” there should be some policy regarding missing your grades by a lot.

Hence not unconditional

Reply 88

Clwclw

Original post by Sheric

For my unconditional offer, I had to attend an interview and sat what felt like an exam that examined my ability as an English Student at one of the Russell Group Universities. And the feedback that I got from the examiner was that my analysis of text is of high standard, and my personal statement showed promise and showed potential of an English student.

This sounds much like unconditional offers traditionally used to be - on the basus of an interview and a personal statement that is actually read....indeed I had one like this back in the day from UCL - good for you it sounds like you’d be a genuine asset to the college! I think the debate now though isn’t really about the likes of you or your college offer, rather it is hoodwinking mid ability students by flattering them into believing they are really wanted by an often very mediocre college when all they really want is the cash sum they bring. I have known students to submit applications of an afternoon only to have received unconditionals the next morning definately no interview..... or even a human being reading their application I doubt!

Reply 89

anxiughty

Original post by nts24

Then that is just a lower conditional offer, no?

Original post by Clwclw

Hence not unconditional

that's kinda why i put the "unconditional" in quotation marks. typical policy in america is that they'll give you a place, but if your grades plummet quite significantly, they are able to take the offer back (ie if you're an IB student [and IB is most popular in America] with a predicted 38 but you get a 35 they're likely to be okay with it, but if you end up with lower than a 30 then it's likely a whole different story). if the UK wants to continue pushing with this and not be discouraging for students to do well in their exams, i think there should still be a fine line between acceptable and unacceptable grades, especially for higher tier and competitive universities.

Reply 90

Tom191

Original post by Realitysreflexx

Most Oxbridge rejects, have the ability to perform well at another Russell group.

Nottingham would only give unconditionals to qualified candidates.

Other universities do far worse and hand them out like candy just to fill their courses. SO often you get threads of people with unconditionals from a whole guantlet of CCC universities.

Notts give out unconditionals for fun, I know people whose predicted grades matched their course requirements and they got unconditionals. They clearly want numbers and that's also probably why they have an absolute ton of courses in clearing too i guess.

Reply 91

Realitysreflexx

Original post by Tom191

You guess, you think, you know not very much. I dont know anyone at Notts personally who got an unconditional offer. And i go there lol. Where did you go again? U of clearing?

Reply 92

Tom191

Original post by Realitysreflexx

You guess, you think, you know not very much. I dont know anyone at Notts personally who got an unconditional offer. And i go there lol. Where did you go again? U of clearing?

Sure you don't know anyone that had an unconditional lol, about 95% of people who applied for Notts from my school got unconditionals and most of them were not "highly qualified", most of them had predicted grades equal to their entry requirements as I said. You don't need to get so defensive over your uni looool, I never said it was a bad uni it just gives out an absolute ton of unconditionals and I understand why they do it. And no, I don't go to Notts.

Reply 93

Realitysreflexx

Original post by Tom191

Im pretty defensive, over unfounded quacking. You dont have any real knowledge of notts and until you can prove you attend somewhere comparable/better, keep quiet.

Reply 94

Tom191

Original post by Realitysreflexx

Im pretty defensive, over unfounded quacking. You dont have any real knowledge of notts and until you can prove you attend somewhere comparable/better, keep quiet.

Unfounded?? It's common knowledge that Notts is one of the top unis that hands out unconditionals. I don't have knowledge of what Notts as a uni is like but what I do have knowledge about is the number of unconditionals it hands out to my friends. As I said, it actually makes sense why they do it because if someone who is predicted AAA gets an unconditional from Notts for a course requiring AAA when they have 4 other conditional offers from unis similar to Notts, they will probably go to Notts. It makes sense from a business perspective. I don't see why I have to prove myself online for my opinion to be heard, but for the record my uni is higher in the league tables than Nottingham if that somehow makes my opinion any more valid.

Which it doesn't, but you seem to think that matters.

Reply 95

username2094811

Original post by mojojojo101

If the 'bums on seats' narrative is true then that probably shows they are trying to secure their funding for the upcoming years as early as possible, most likely because other areas of funding (central government, the EU) are becoming more precarious.

Exactly. People on TSR always view things in the short-term and just want to go to universities that are currently 'in' and have the highest starting salaries, regardless of whether any prestigious accolades are actually associated with that university. No wonder they're Oxbridge rejects if that's how basic their thinking is.

Personally I think it would be nice to go to a university that already has an established reputation and will stay that way when I'm older, rather than the one which performed well in back in the day but had to close down.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 96

username4750946

This rise is probably because there are now more people applying for unis and wanting to get a degree than before.

Reply 97

Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by Satyr

This rise is probably because there are now more people applying for unis and wanting to get a degree than before.

It’s the opposite actually. The 18 yr old population in England is shrinking and so universities are desperate to fill spaces to afford to pay their bills.