University admissions process should take place after results, not before

NUS-USI President Adrianne Peltz has called for UCAS to re-consider its applications process after it revealed that it has put off a decision on having a post-results admissions process and plans to maintain its current approach of basing offers on predicted grades. She said that basing offers on predicted grades is an unreliable system and that going by predicted grades can have a negative impact on people from schools who don’t have people regularly going to university.

Adrianne Peltz said: “Transferring the university admissions process to after pupils have received their exam results could be very beneficial to our students, particularly for people from poorer backgrounds. Such a change would allow universities to judge prospective students on their real grades, rather than predicted grades which can quite often be very inaccurate for people who are at schools that aren't used to sending their pupils on to universities.

“The Post-Qualifications Applications approach is an excellent idea and it is very frustrating that despite the fact there was strong support for this approach, there’s not going to be any reform towards this important change. It is critical that we widen access to higher education and PQA was a key way in which this could be done – this makes it all the more important that we now ensure government examines other ways to widen access to higher education.

“UCAS has once again put off a decision on PQAs, and that makes it all the more important that the Stormont Executive pro-actively addresses how to ensure greater access and full equality of opportunity in relation to higher education for everyone in Northern Ireland.”