Universities are asking for relatively lower grades under the international GCSE than they are for the reformed GCSE, Tes can reveal. With independent schools allowed to take the IGCSE but state schools barred from doing so, the entry requirements favour some privately educated pupils over their state sector peers. The news comes on top of renewed speculation that the IGCSE may be an 'easier' course than the reformed GCSE. ‘IGCSE’ is a term used as shorthand for a family of alternative key stage...

There’s been a lot of talk of degree apprenticeships as a great alternative to university. Just this morning, education secretary Damian Hinds tweeted that there is a “huge range of opportunity” for students collecting results today, “whether it’s university, college, starting an apprenticeship or entering the world of work”. With degree apprenticeships typically paying salaries of £15,000 – £20,000, compared to annual tuition fees of £9,000, the finances make sense. Plus, you get to work in you...

The proportion of young people who think it’s important to go to university has hit a six-year low, according to a new poll. In 2013, 86 per cent of 11- to 16-year-olds surveyed by the social mobility charity the Sutton Trust thought it was important to go to university to do well – this year, those agreeing had fallen to 75 per cent. The survey results were published as students pick up their A-level results today and will learn whether or not they have got into the university course they wante...

Students from less advantaged backgrounds are grossly underrepresented in Britain’s top universities. This under-representation of certain groups is particularly pronounced in highly competitive courses such as medicine. In England, for example, 80% of medical students come from just 20% of the country’s secondary schools. This leads to a profession dominated by certain demographic groups. This imbalance isn’t just an issue of “fairness” or social equality. It is well established that UK trained...

Good schools know how important it is for parents and carers to support their child’s education at home and want to involve them in discussions about careers and future plans. However, for parents, especially those with low educational attainment or poor levels of literacy and numeracy, can be reluctant or fearful of getting involved in discussions about higher education. Tackling this issue is not easy, but universities do have a role to play in helping schools. They could, for example, support...

Almost all young people say that their parents influenced their education and career choices, yet our latest research, published with Kings College London last week, reveals that many universities fail to plan their outreach activities around parents. Why might that be? We found that problems start early, many schools struggle to engage parents, yet in many cases, universities rely on schools in order to access parents. As one interviewee put it: “Teachers are always acting as the gatekeepers so...

University is life-changing for many people, not just in terms of their employment opportunities, but in their outlook and confidence. It certainly changed mine. However, there are some practices, such as unconditional offers, which are letting students down. The increase in unconditional offers has been swift and significant, with fewer than 3,000 recorded in 2013, rising to more than 50,000 in 2017. Ucas’ annual report identifies that the number of unconditional offers from selective universit...

The new higher education watchdog, the Office for Students (OfS), is urging universities to pay more attention to socio-economic and school background, rather than just A-level grades, when deciding to award a place to a student. It wants institutions to be more ambitious on what are known as “contextual admissions”, offering places to students who have the potential to study at the highest level, but may be at a disadvantage because of background and school. Most universities already use contex...