People put a lot of emphasis on GCSEs. But while they are used as part of our shortlisting process, usually as a minimum requirement, they aren’t the be-all and end-all to those of us who are a director of admissions.
I used to be director of admissions at the University of Oxford and there was a perception that you needed all A*s - or 8s and 9s now - to stand a chance of getting in. But universities are actually pretty effective at understanding that students can develop beyond GCSE.
If a student’s GCSE results are not at the level we’d anticipate, we look at what evidence we are getting from the school in the reference, and whether it suggests that they are on an upward trajectory in their post-16 study.
It’s very common to see a step up in performance at post-16. At GCSE, you’re spread across eight to 10 subjects, whereas post-16 you’ve narrowed down to the ones you enjoy and want to pursue.
For the results coming out today, we have a small number of students with their GCSE results as part of that offer.
We’ve got social workers, for instance, who need a 4 in maths and English GCSE as part of the accrediting body’s requirements. Pharmacy is another - there’s a minimum requirement in mathematics and English. Also, at other universities, teaching has GCSE subject minimums.
Future plans
The vast majority of students who will be applying for 2021 entry are using GCSE results that they obtained back in 2019, when we had a system that operated as it historically has, so we can be fairly confident in applying existing systems to their results, and there shouldn’t be any change at all in how GCSEs are used.
Then, depending on how much change we see from the norm this year, it might require us to go away and rethink how we use GCSEs for 2022.
How can we guide GCSE students with their A-level choices?
We’ve got two years to prepare for admissions for this cohort, and given that we’ve often had no time to prepare for a change of policy over the past two weeks, that feels like quite a luxury. We will come up with something that will be workable and practical, and we’ll test our model. And the schools will also be adapting over those years.
Progress made
If a student’s GCSE results are not great and there’s not an awful lot of evidence to suggest that there is an upward trajectory, but the school is still predicting that they’re going to get there in the end, the university will probably use an admissions test as the deal breaker as to whether the student gets interviewed, gets an offer and so on.
To any student getting results today, I’d say make of them what you will, but recognise that you’ve still got another two years to build the case for when you apply to university. Engage enthusiastically next year, because we all understand that how you were doing two years before from university can change.
Mike Nicholson is director of admissions at the University of Bath
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