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Plans for overhaul of university admissions so students apply after they get A-levels are ‘dead in the water’

Sources have told i that plans for a radical shake-up of university admissions have been “thrown in a hole” by the Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi

Plans for a radical shake-up of university admissions in England to boost social mobility are “dead in the water”, i can reveal.

The Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi has ditched one of the Government’s most vaunted plans for improving educational opportunity – getting students to apply for university after they have their A-level results.

The former Education Secretary Gavin Williamson had planned to introduce the ‘post-qualification admissions’ (PQA) system, but sources have told i that the policy has been “thrown in a hole” by Mr Zahawi.

One of the country’s leading social mobility experts said the move would be a set back to the Goverment’s levelling up agenda.

Currently, students receive offers months earlier on the basis of grades predicted by their school.

Many commentators have said that this disadvantages students from poorer backgrounds, with some evidence suggesting they are more likely to plump for less selective universities, even if they are capable of achieving higher grades.

Some studies have also shown that students from deprived backgrounds are more likely to have their grades under-predicted.

In 2020, Mr Williamson threw his support behind PQA, launching a Department for Education consultation on the change in 2021.

In one of his final speeches as Education Secretary in September, he said it would “address a long-standing unfairness in our university admissions system” and vowed to “accelerate our plans to bring forward this important reform”.

However, sources have told i that the plan has been ditched by Mr Zahawi. One well-placed source said the policy was “dead in the water”. A second source said it had been “formally thrown in a hole”.

A third source in the university sector said it was “unlikely” to see the light of day. They said there had been “no recent sign” that it was a DfE “priority or any preparations that I’m aware of”, with the department more focused on course quality and introducing a ‘lifelong loan entitlement’ to study at university.

i understands that Mr Zahawi saw the idea as posing too much upheaval for an “uncertain reward”.

But Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said that the Government had missed an opportunity to level up.

“Applying to university with your actual A-level grades would make it so much easier for young people, particularly those who have no insider knowledge of how to navigate a bafflingly complex admissions system,” he said.

“This reform had the potential to level up opportunities in higher education but sadly it looks like it has once again fallen into the ‘too hard to do’ list.

“We need to do much more to make higher education accessible to all young people and not the just place for a privileged few.”

Nick Hillman, the director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think-tank, said: “It’s clearly the case that PQA was Gavin Williamson’s baby. Nadhim has gone deathly quiet.

“They’ve run out of time to implement a new system by the time of the next election, so they wouldn’t be able to even if they wanted to now.”

Mr Hillman said the move was “probably the right decision”. “The benefits of PQA were oversold,” he said.

However, the decision was criticised by the University and College Union, who have long called for the change. Jo Grady, the UCU’s general secretary, said: “We have been calling for change for years and there is now broad support across the post-16 education sector for reform of university admissions.

“If we want levelling up across the country then all students must have a fair chance to enter higher education based on their actual achievement, not a vague system of predicted grades.

“Now is the time for bold reform which supports applicants to make better informed choices. Moving to a simpler system of post-qualification admissions, underpinned by better information and advice, is in everyone’s interest.”

PQA is not the first Williamson-era policy that Mr Zahawi has ditched. Earlier this month he U-turned on a plan to ban mobile phones from schools.

One source said Mr Zahawi was looking to “set his own agenda, shorn of the heritage” of his predecessor.

The higher and further education minister, Michelle Donelan, said: “We will respond to the consultation on post-qualification admissions in due course.”

Analysis: Why Nadhim Zahawi has dropped PQA

Governments of different stripes have ummed and ahhed about reforming university admissions for years.

England, Wales and Northern Ireland are practically alone in the developed world in using predicted grades to decide university offers (Scotland already uses a form of post-qualification admissions).

But in the final analysis, ministers have always baulked at the upheaval involved in overhauling admissions. Nadhim Zahawi seems to have reached the same conclusion.

While handing out offers before students get their results is illogical, fundamental reform would probably require redrawing the school and university calendar so that students get their grades earlier or go to university later.

It would be possible to go with a less radical option where students continue applying in the autumn and winter but only receive formal offers once they get their results. But some people have argued that if you’re going to water it down, why bother at all?

There are wider political considerations at play. Mr Zahawi, who styles himself as the “evidence-led Education Secretary”, seems intent on scrapping the barnacles off his boat – ditching what he sees as the extraneous policies inherited from his ill-fated predecessor, Gavin Williamson.

A potential candidate in a future Conservative leadership contest, Mr Zahawi clearly wants to run a tight ship at the DfE. He has little interest getting embroiled in a complex and contentious rewiring of admissions.

It is possible to debate the merits of PQA. But what is undeniable is that the Government has jettisoned one of their few big ideas for boosting social mobility.

With ministers already facing claims that plans for ‘levelling up’ lack substance, they will need to show they are beginning to get results before the next election.

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