UK: Students face radical admission reforms

In a report published last week, Britain's Universities and Colleges Admissions Service proposes scrapping the current system in which students apply for courses based on predicted grades. Under reforms that could be introduced in 2016, teenagers will sit exams as early as Easter and A-level results will be published at the start of July, instead of mid-August. Applications would also be limited to just two choices - instead of the current five - and all degree courses would start in October, writes Graeme Paton for The Telegraph.

UCAS warns that significant reforms are needed because the current system is "complex, lacks transparency for many applicants and is inefficient and cumbersome for [universities]". It says that many students apply for university before they are ready and fail to make sensible back-up choices, leaving many without any places at all if they fall narrowly short of predicted grades. A consultation document warns that almost half of predicted grades are wrong and more than a quarter of pupils receive at least one under-prediction - often forcing them to drop applications to top universities.
Full report on The Telegraph site