The notion of university education as a buyer’s market rather than an academic pursuit is a cultural shift many of us were not ready for

When I became the head of sixth-form for a large comprehensive school in 2013, unconditional offers were the holy grail of university admissions. You were more likely to find diamonds on Brighton beach. That same year, the government lifted the cap on the number of university places available; institutions could no longer be fined for taking on more students than allocated by the government. The free market was finally here.

Despite a rise in university fees, the initial result was an increase in the number of applications year after year. The most academically able were being fought over with some institutions using unconditional offers as a way of headhunting the most talented students in a much more competitive arena.

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In 2015, our school received a few unconditional offers. By 2016 we had a handful, and in 2017, almost a quarter of all our university applicants had received an unconditional offer. Almost a third of the offers came from one university, which saw a dramatic drop in its number of accepted places last year. Unconditional offers seemed to be its way of trying to boost much-needed admissions.



The cynic in me sees this as a money-making exercise. Students mean money, but for the first time in a long while the number of applications fell by 5% across the UK and 7% from within the EU in 2017. Now, universities are pulling out all the stops to get bums on seats.

When a student receives an unconditional offer, you see the joy and relief on their face. The weight of the world has been lifted, they feel special. But it’s a double-edged sword.

Some students flourish without the stress of performance hanging over them. Others, however, take their foot off the pedal. One student didn’t complete their coursework, because they “had got in anyway”. Another, a few years ago, didn’t even bother to show up for an exam.

This year, the bulk of the unconditional offers arrived in the spring, leaving several important months of learning still to go through. But the mantra of “short-term sacrifice, long-term gain” rarely holds sway for a student who need not turn up for another lesson or pick up a book at home.

Trying to deal with this as a teacher is difficult. If a student stops trying or attending classes, some schools might not enter them for the exam to protect the school’s results. But this could have serious repercussions for the school, affecting its funding.

There is no sign that universities will stop the practice of giving unconditional offers. In fact, they are likely to increase it to fill places. Now that AS Levels are a thing of the past, it’s important that GCSE results, personal statements, and references and predictions from teachers are given more weight to consider the impact of an unconditional offer on a student’s attainment. And they’re only offered to students with the best academic records.

I know that my peers in other schools have not been affected by this issue to the same degree – but I fear that it is coming. The number of unconditional offers doubled from 2014 to 2015. Meanwhile, some universities are finding other, more creative ways to attract students. One university, for example, gave an offer with reduced grades to one of our brightest students to persuade them to choose that institution.

Students are smart and they have wised up to the financial difficulties of universities. One student, who was bright but under-performing in a few subjects, was adamant that even if he didn’t meet his conditional offer, the university was likely to accept him anyway. Publicly, I protested but privately, I acquiesced. With one sixth of teacher predictions wrong or over-inflated, I am torn. I tell students to have aspirations but to be sensible, secretly knowing it is definitely worth a punt because some universities are desperate for students.

The notion of university education as a buyer’s market rather than an academic pursuit or step into a career is a cultural shift many of us were not ready for. It is manageable at the moment, but I fear it will only get worse the more desperate universities become.

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I’m glad that, despite the high number of unconditional offers made to students, only around half were accepted as firm choices. My plea to universities is to please do this with thought; don’t make unconditional offers a default for earning extra income. Offer scholarships as an incentive, knock down grades for the most able students, but please don’t take away the incentive for them to work hard.

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