Plans To Allow Post-Results University Applications Have Been Scrapped

Proposed plans to allow students to apply to universities after they had received their A-level grades have been abandoned.

As university groups welcomed the news, saying it would give them more time to make their selections, the Ucas admissions service said the proposals, despite being hailed as a step towards a fairer system, faced "insurmountable difficulties".

However the National Union of Students said scrapping the plans was a "missed opportunity".

Instead there is a recommendation from Ucas for improvements to the clearing process, which matches students and empty places at the end of the application cycle.

A major review of admissions was carried out by the previous government and concluded that the current system, based on predicted grades, worked to the advantage of confident, wealthier applications.

It argued that it would be much more of a level playing field for state school pupils if admissions were based on actual grades.

Following this Ucas set out its own proposals to allow students to apply after they knew their results - described at the time as the biggest shake-up in the admissions system for half a century.

But the response from universities showed little enthusiasm for such a radical change.

(H)