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Britain's elite universities are set to turn away record numbers of students with straight As next week.
A surge in university applications this year and rising A-level pass rates will see an estimated 12,000 sixth-formers with top grades turned away from Oxford and Cambridge.
The increase in applications comes partly as a result of measures to attract more candidates from state schools and working class homes.
Geoff Parks, the head of admissions at Cambridge, warned that the university was set to reject more pupils with three As than ever this year. "I would be surprised if we didn't set a record," he said.
The warning comes amid fears that up to 130,000 applicants will fail to win places at university this summer. The recession is fuelling demand for degree courses despite concern that growing numbers of graduates are failing to find work as employers cut back on jobs.
A record 30,000 candidates applied to Oxford and Cambridge, which only have 7,000 places between them. Some will fail to get the three A grades they need while others will choose alternative universities. But an estimated 12,000 Oxbridge hopefuls set to achieve straight As in their results next week are likely to be rejected.
Next year candidates applying to Cambridge will find it even harder to win a place. The university has said it will require students to achieve at least one of the new A* grades being introduced to A-levels from then, plus two more As.
The Government has said an A* will be awarded to pupils who score at least 90 per cent of the marks in their final A-level exams. The new grade is intended to help elite institutions sift the best candidates from the rest as soaring numbers achieve straight As.
Many fear the new benchmark will favour students from independent schools, who traditionally achieve top grades, at the expense of state-educated candidates. Oxford has said it will not require A*s until at least 2012 to allow time for the new grade to become established.
An unprecedented 600,000 candidates have applied to university so far this year, 60,000 more than last year. But ministers have only funded an extra 13,000 places. The annual clearing process is expected to be the most competitive in history.
Reader views (8)
Used to be grades were only part of an admission process. Perhaps there will finally be a trend back to those days. I know many straight A students that aren't smart enough to change a flat tire, let alone remember what they learned in a class a month ago. And I know many 'average' kids who CAN do both, and will bust their butts in college to work and learn far beyond what the others are capable of doing.
- Trunk, US
"Britain's elite universities are set to turn away record numbers of students with straight As next week"
^ That makes no sense. Surely, the highest grades universities can require are straight A's. So, why would such students be rejected next week on results day when they must have met their university's grade requirements? Unis cannot reject someone who they have already given an offer (if they get the required grades)...right?
- Mohit, Swindon, UK
School degrees in Britain have become worthless. Nu Labor experiment has failed British society. Next year there will be changes.
- Georgie, Islington, London
These politically inspired left wing seats of learning will be very happy to accept straight 'B's as long as they are from disadvantaged but not incredibly bright average students. Roll on the mediocrity of the Labour education model. Third world UK leading the world again !!!!
- Nick Holland, glasgow
Well what a surprise - grade inflation was bound to result in this situation. School examinations are now nothing more than attendance certificates. Universities and employers are inevitably going to develop their own means of distinguishing between candidates - now that is far more toxic to social mobility than a properly meritocratic examinations system.
- Nora, London, UK
So in other words, A* is an A grade and there are going to be record numbers of students getting B grades this year . . .
This kind of double-speak just lets down these students (and those of us who took the old exams) and makes employers suspicious. The whole point of these exam changes - and Polytechnics upgrading to Universities - was so that John Major could reduce the number of people in the 'dole queue'. People who would have left school at 16 left at 18, by which time it was easier to pass the A Levels, so more people went to more Universities, meaning more students needed a post-graduate qualification to stand out from the crowd. You had to work for 2 years to gain enough credits to claim unemployment benefit instead of Social Security, and the unemployment figures were counted by how many people were claiming unemployment benefit: ta-da! Potentially someone who might have left school at 16 would not have turned up in the unemployment figures for another decade - and at the end of the exercise they might not have been any better positioned to get a job.
- Roz, France
It makes sense to start a uni course now - 3 years later when the recession is over (hopefully!) the jobs market will be ready to take on new graduates.
- Isabel, Woking
More left wing social engineering rubbish. So if those from working class / poor backgrounds also get straight A's will they be rejected? With Ox/Cam only accept those who have a few ASBO's under their belts? Maybe a bit of time in a Yoof offenders institution will add to their desirability.
- Adam, Harrow, UK
