The former head of Ucas has suggested that the cancellation of A levels could result in “one big conditional offer” for the cohort of students hoping to start university courses this year.
Mary Curnock Cook, the former chief executive of Ucas, which administers university admissions in the UK, tweeted that she thought universities might have to rely on unconditional offers if A levels are cancelled this summer because of coronavirus.
Coronavirus: ‘Teachers asked to set extra exams’
Coronavirus: Schools collect mock GCSEs as contingency
Coronavirus and schools: LIVE
But this could have serious implications for some of the most selective universities, which often make more offers than they have places, then whittle down their offers once they know students’ actual grades, Tes understands.
A senior figure in UK university admissions told Tes that universities such as Oxford and Cambridge would be worst affected by any cancellations of the summer exam season.
“They would be going on GCSEs and predicted grades, and obviously other information in the Ucas application,” they said.
“It would affect the most highly selective places...Oxford and Cambridge would have to choose who they accept without actual A-level scores - for most other universities, the effect would be quite marginal.
“They must be thinking about it - how could they not be? They will have no students who miss their grades as they always give a smaller number of places than they finally accept.
“It does seem to me quite likely that exams will be disrupted.”
They said delays to exams would also affect universities’ tuition fees and funding for the first term if they delayed the start of term.
And if students wanted to get A levels “in the bag” once accepted on an unconditional offer, they might face studying for A levels while coping with adjusting to university life, they added.
Last week on the BBC’s Today programme, Kathryn Whittington, head of admissions at the University of Reading, said they could manage a one- or two-week delay to A levels but, after that, “we could look at potentially delaying the start of term - that’s a big decision for us to take as an institution. The other thing we might look at is just extending the enrolment period.
“But I would suspect this is something that would affect the whole sector and, if the institution that I worked for was seriously thinking about delaying the start of term, then so would everybody else.”
A spokesperson for Ucas said: “We are closely monitoring the ongoing outbreak of coronavirus (Covid-19) to ensure we do all we can to help students with their applications.
“We’ll continue to update information throughout our website for students, teachers and universities.
“Students applying through Ucas have until 31 August to meet the academic conditions of their offer, therefore possible delays to the publications of exam results until then should not impact students’ places being confirmed.
“If necessary, extensions to this date will be considered in consultation with universities and colleges. In the past, universities have taken mitigating circumstances into account when assessing applications/changes to exam results due to events beyond the student’s control.”
A spokesperson for Universities UK said: “At present, the advice from government is to continue business as usual where appropriate and we are therefore working on the basis that A-level exams will continue as planned.
“However we recognise that this is an evolving situation and we are contingency planning for a number of scenarios. Ucas, the admissions body, is sitting on the sector contingency group and considering options and mitigations for potential exam delays.”
Universities UK has convened a “coronavirus working group” for the higher education sector, which includes representatives from the Department for Education, and is planning for a range of scenarios.
