A complex A-level results day could herald the start of a fundamental shift in UK universities’ approach to admissions, as financial uncertainties converge with the realities of post-pandemic recovery and changing demographics to pose several key challenges.
Regulator Ofqual’s decision to try to deflate grades back towards 2019 levels will mean they will be lower in 2022 than 2021, although still higher than before the pandemic, because the regulator’s plan is being enacted in two stages to reduce its impact on the current cohort.
Questions remain about what this will look like in reality, and it is unclear how this uncertainty has affected the already difficult art of predicting grades, with some experts forecasting a larger than normal gap between predicted and actual grades, which could lead to more applicants missing their offers.
