Predicting the Switching from Predicted Grades

Back at the end of 2010 I wrote a lengthy rant about the British Higher Educational system, a machine through which I’ve traversed the cogs and been pumped out onto the figurative conveyor belt of graduates, and into the figurative wasteland of the British employment scene. 

In this blog post I describe how universities should be taking only the best candidates, making a degree a mark of distinction again. I touch on ‘the best qualifications or prior experience.’ I like to think of myself as a better writer now than I was in 2010. You be the judge. 

What I was trying to say was, if students were asked to take a gap year between college and university- between Further and Higher Education- then prospective students would be approaching these universities with qualifications in hand. It also means that students will have completed all the work. Their FE grades would be available, and from there they can see what their strengths are, and where they want to go. 

The long-standing UCAS system- the university application process- required me to apply in the October of the final college year. When you’re sitting a modular course like mine, in which every month you’re investigating a different area, you only have half the information you need. I ended up applying for, and sitting, a broad-based practical course without any plans for what I’d do after this. Without any end goal. I really wish I’d made the point clearer, that a completed course allows you to plan your future more more efficiently. Because it seems that from today, that idea is being bandied about in parliament. 

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson ‘said he wanted all students to be able to choose the best university they can go to once they know their grades.’ This is likely to come into play in 2023. 

Isn’t that what people have done for a few decades, though? I recall the UCAS form having 6 spaces for courses we could apply for, and if we get more than one conditional offer that we meet, we can choose. (I applied to 4 universities- I got a conditional from Salford, provided I got a Merit on my GNVQ, and a conditional from Manchester Metropolitan University, provided I got a Pass, and a C in an upcoming obligatory Maths resit- for which I hadn’t sat the classes that year. 

The article ends with a line from Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) "Post-qualification admissions would be better and fairer." It’s 20 years since I applied through UCAS, and 10 years since I wrote that blog post. It looks like universities are finally catching up.