A-level results day is on Thursday. It usually brings lots of photos of young people leaping in the air and lazy commentators doing their best to play down the achievements of staff and students, despite not stepping foot in a school for decades.

What it doesn’t usually bring is much discussion about the fact that a lot of the results will have little impact on where and what increasing numbers of university students study.

The University and College Union (UCU) has been something of a lone voice calling for reform, but the recent explosion in unconditional offers and “conditional unconditional offers” – where a student is only guaranteed a place if they list the university as their first choice – have exposed the failings of our system. We have seen a real shift in opinion.

Almost two in five students (38%) received at least one unconditional offer this year, compared to a third (34%) last year and just 1% six years ago.

We are alone in using a system where students are offered university places based on predicted grades, which are notoriously inaccurate – just 16% of students actually match the marks they were predicted.

Moving to a post-qualification admissions (PQA) system – where people apply to university after they get their results – would deal with the problem of inaccurate grade predications, abolish the chaotic clearing system, make unconditional offers redundant and level the playing field for students.

Recent reviews announced by universities watchdog the Office for Students and Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, suggest that universities are finally catching up with the idea that our system is not up to scratch. The pace of change has not been quick and previous attempts to challenge the status quo have failed.

The outgoing education secretary, Damian Hinds, said the increase in unconditional offers was “disturbing” and “may be symptomatic of wider issues within university admissions processes”. He has also spoken out against the use of conditional unconditional offers, likening them to “pressure-selling tactics, which are harming students’ grades”.

It seems easier at present to find support for moving to a PQA system than opposition. The lazy defence of the status quo is that such a radical change would be disruptive and unworkable, but that just doesn’t ring true when we look at what other countries do.

A root and branch reform of our admissions system would provide an opportunity for joined-up thinking – both in terms of how students are supported to make choices about where to study, and in how we ensure institutions are making fair, transparent and well-informed choices about the students they want to educate.

Any reform must ensure that the voices of staff and students are heard. UCU members are as committed as anyone to making the system fairer. In a survey of admissions staff, seven out of 10 respondents said they backed a PQA system.

The tide is turning in favour of reform and a real opportunity now exists for a radical overhaul. The current system, based on inaccurately predicted results, is failing students. It is time we adopted the type of system used around the world where university offers are based on actual achievements instead of guesswork.