UK Edition
Eight in ten offers are unconditional at one British university, Ucas figures show
Eight in ten offers are unconditional at one British university, new figures from Ucas show.
Suffolk University promised 1,110 offers to students last summer irrespective of their A-level grades.
Unconditional offers made up 83.8 per cent of all offers the university made in 2018, rising steeply from the 23 per cent it made the year before.
There are ten universities that gave more than half of their offers as unconditional last year, according to data published by the university admissions service in its end of cycle report.
The number of unconditional offers has risen sharply in recent years, with students now 30 times more likely to receive one than five years ago.
Fierce competition between universities to attract students has seen sixth form pupils increasingly offered places regardless of their exam results.
Some institutions hand out “incentivised” offers, where they tell students that their offer will be unconditional but only if they accept it as their first choice university.
For the first time, Ucas has published an in depth study into the rise of unconditional offers as part of its annual end of cycle report.
“The growth in unconditional offer-making since 2013 is the consequence of a combination of the growing number of providers that use unconditional offers, and among those providers, the increasing extent to which they do so,” the report said.
"However, while the number of providers making unconditional offers has increased each year since 2013, a number of providers have only done so for one or two cycles, then reduced or halted their use of unconditional offer-making.”
The Office for Students published a report which found that applicants who accept an unconditional offer are more likely to miss their predicted A-level grades by two or more grades.
Nottingham University announced that it will cease giving out unconditional offers from this September onwards.
It is the first Russell Group university to do so, and cited concern at the “reported variation” between predicted and actual A-level results for students with unconditional offers, indicating that some pupils "may lose motivation at a critical period in their studies”.
Last year, 11.4 per cent of Nottingham’s offers were unconditional making it the second highest among the Russell Group universities. Birmingham University gave out the most, at 18.9 per cent of its total.
Clare Marchant, chief executive of Ucas, said: “It’s crucial that students can make well-informed choices. UCAS is here to provide step-by-step support, to help them make the right decisions for their future, including advice on unconditional offers.”
Education Secretary Damian Hinds has said that the steep rise in unconditional offers is “disturbing” and should not be used as a tactic to “get students through the door”.
He said: "What I find particularly concerning is the OfS's finding of how many of those accepting unconditional offers then miss their predicted A Level grades, because if university didn't work out for that student it is those A Level grades they would fall back on.”