With A-level marks larger than final yr, and extra younger folks getting locations at their first-choice universities, 2024 can be counted as a profitable spherical of outcomes. In contrast to 2023’s cohort, most of whose GCSE grades had been awarded by lecturers as a result of Covid, this yr’s college and school leavers had a earlier set of exams below their belts after they took their seats in examination halls. England’s examination regulator, Ofqual, believes this stood them in good stead and has dominated out grade inflation as an evidence for improved efficiency.
Whether or not they’re leaving residence to review or not, the place to go is an enormous choice. It could actually solely be factor that 82% of candidates have secured a spot on their chosen course. Additionally encouraging is the truth that the 27,600 18-year-olds from essentially the most disadvantaged backgrounds who obtained a suggestion is the best quantity on document.
As ever, the image is patchy. The hole between the proportion of personal and state college pupils reaching grade C or above is wider than at any time since 2018, and really regarding. In contrast to England, Northern Eire and Wales noticed declines within the proportion of A* and A grades (Scottish pupils sit totally different exams) – though leads to Northern Eire stay larger than in England. Whereas pupils within the north-east barely shrank the hole with London and the south-east, regional disparities stay massive – with London recording each the best share of prime grades (31.3%) and the largest enchancment since earlier than the pandemic.
Extra detailed breakdowns of the information will allow additional comparisons. However there are already issues concerning the impression of this yr’s raised acceptance fee on universities with decrease necessities, which depend on the clearing course of for a better proportion of their intakes. The monetary squeeze on universities has incentivised aggressive establishments to tackle extra college students. Doubtlessly, this each degrades their expertise – by rising class sizes, elevating stress on workers and so forth – and weakens the place of newer universities, that are attended by larger proportions of working-class and ethnic minority college students. With smaller numbers coming into clearing, the funds at a few of these establishments are prone to be much more precarious.
One other supply of fear, for schools greater than colleges, is the unknown destiny of a whole lot of stage 3 {qualifications} – taken as a substitute of, or alongside, A-levels by one-third of the cohort (a barely smaller proportion than research solely A-levels). These are within the means of being reviewed, and the UCU this week rightly known as for this course of to be prolonged. This week’s T-level outcomes revealed continued teething troubles for these newer vocational programs, with solely 72% of scholars finishing two-year programs and simply 0.2% gaining the highest grade.
As a result of practically all pupils sit GCSEs – in contrast to the combined post-16 menu – these outcomes subsequent week will supply a clearer indication of nationwide developments, together with inequalities. However yet another level price making about A-levels, and highlighted by the British Academy, is that the variety of college students combining arts or humanities with science topics has declined. This can be a disgrace since these areas of studying are all essential, and a profitable society (and economic system) wants generalists, and other people geared up to assume creatively throughout boundaries, in addition to specialists. Of all Michael Gove’s reforms, the phase-out of curriculum-broadening AS-levels is among the many hardest to know. Hopefully it is going to quickly be reversed. In the intervening time, pupils and lecturers must be congratulated for his or her achievements.
