Increase in unconditional offers

At least 20 universities are offering unconditional offers, a quadrupling in the past year. They include; Birmingham, Sussex, Nottingham, Queen Mary, Leicester, Lincoln, Lancaster, City, Leeds Beckett, Sheffield Hallam, Liverpool Hope, Swansea, and UEA. Reading has an ‘academic excellence scheme’, which removes some, or all, A-level conditions for selected “outstanding” candidates. Keele is making initial conditional offers, but switching to unconditional for students with high GCSE and AS results, and A-level predictions who accept them as their firm choice. Aston is contacting ‘strong’ candidates who have yet to confirm their first-choice institution, offering to change their offer to unconditional. 

The approach has critics, with some saying the practice is not fair and warning that students may “go off the boil”. Mike Nicholson, head of admissions at Bath, said: “It would be a tragedy if candidates found their more relaxed attitude to their A-levels resulted in them failing to secure a place on a graduate scheme several years later.”  [ Source GTAssociates ]