Latest news with #AlevelResults
Telegraph
23 minutes ago
- General
- Telegraph
A-level results day 2025: What time will my grades be released?
For students, parents and teachers all across England and Wales, A-level results day is tinged with excitement and nerves in equal measure. It can be a day of joy and triumph, with good grades handing students the keys to the university or career of their choice. But it can also be a highly stressful time if results don't go to plan. Here is everything you need to know from clearing and Ucas points to grade boundaries. When will I get my grades? On Thursday 14, students in England, Northern Ireland and Wales will open their A-level results. Students in Scotland, which has a different qualification system, already received theirs on Aug 5. Many students will arrive at their schools, often accompanied by equally nervous parents or relatives, where teachers will be waiting to congratulate – or console – them on their results. Others will be waiting by their computers or phones, urgently refreshing their inbox as they wait for an email containing their grades. When do the results come out? There are around 2,000 schools in England with sixth forms that will release their results on Thursday morning. You may be able to access your results online but this will depend on the school or college so it is best to check with them in advance if this is an option. You should be able to see if you have been accepted to your first choice university on the Ucas portal from around 8am. However, don't worry if you can't see your confirmation at this time as it can take universities up to 24 hours to confirm your place. What time do we get the results? The most eager of students can find out their results at 8am, but schools will often stay open until around 11am for those who want to arrive later. Students should check on their school's website or social media to see how they can collect their results. You can also arrange to receive your results by email or post. If you can't be there in person, you can nominate someone to collect them on your behalf, such as a parent, family member or a friend. They will need to bring a completed permission slip and a signed letter of consent from you. How many Ucas points are in an A-level? Many universities will require students to achieve a certain number of Ucas points if they are to receive their place. Each grade is worth a certain number of Ucas points, and these are added together to form an overall number. There is not a set number of points for an A-level as points are based on the grade achieved. The number of points attached to each grade is listed below. A-level Ucas points A* – 56 A – 48 B – 40 C – 32 D – 24 E – 16 Can you retake A-levels? Yes, if they are unhappy with their grades. There are three options available for this – students can either retake them at school, resit them at a college or sixth form or choose to take the exams online as a private candidate. They will have to pay the course and exam fees for any A-levels that they choose to resit. College course fees can range from £1,500 to £9,000 per subject. Exam prices start at around £175 per subject but can cost upwards of £400. Students will usually have to wait a year before being able to retake, resitting the exams in either May or June, as resits take place at the same time as the exams for those sitting their A-levels for the first time. A-level grade boundaries Each exam is graded on a scale from A* to E. Grade boundaries, which show the minimum number of marks required for a grade, are decided by examiners and published on results day. Grade boundaries are decided through a process called awarding and vary each year. Senior examiners will compare scripts from this year's exam series with that of previous years. The reason why grade boundaries are not the same every year is because they are set to reflect the difficulty of the exam. You can find out the grade boundaries for your subject by going to the exam board's site. It is worth being aware of the grade boundaries of your subject in case you are considering getting your grades reviewed. For example, if you are one mark off from the next grade, it may be worth discussing with your school about getting a remark. This year, grade inflation is expected to worsen as last year's high proportion of bumper A-level grades is likely to continue. What if you don't get accepted to your first-choice university There are many options available to students who don't get into their chosen university, such as taking a gap year. However, if students still want to go to university, they can use clearing, a system by Ucas whereby students can apply for a course at universities that still have places to fill. Clearing is available this year now up until Oct 20. It is available to those who do not meet the conditions of their offer on A-level results day, as well as those who did not receive any offers. Students who have changed their mind about what or where they wish to study, and also those who have applied outside the normal application window, can also use the clearing process through Ucas. Applicants will be able to add a clearing choice from 1pm on results day.
Daily Mail
19 hours ago
- General
- Daily Mail
Clearing no longer 'bargain basement for the unsuccessful' as savvy students use it to 'trade up' uni courses
University Clearing is no longer a 'bargain basement for the unsuccessful' amid an explosion of top courses on offer, the head of Ucas has said. Dr Jo Saxton said sixth formers entering Clearing on A-level results day was the 'new normal', with much of the old 'stigma' removed. The admissions chief also said this year's students could be better-achieving than previous years – opening up the possibility of even higher grades. And in a wide-ranging interview, she also urged the Government to encourage university entry for students from disadvantaged regional areas. Dr Saxton was speaking ahead of hundreds of thousands of 18-year-olds receiving their A-level grades on Thursday. Those who miss their grades and get rejected from their chosen universities can enter Clearing, which matches unplaced students with unfilled places. Asked if there was still a 'stigma' to Clearing, she said: 'There is a new normal.' 'Clearing maybe was perceived as a bargain basement – it was for the people who had been unsuccessful. 'But that is definitely not how current applicants perceive it.' She pointed out that because so many top courses are now entering Clearing, many students even use it to 'trade up' from their existing place. 'For current applicants, it's [often] the mechanism by which they change their mind,' she said. Around 26,000 courses are currently on offer in Clearing, with most of the top universities of the Russell Group listing places available. Dr Saxton said students are becoming savvier, by pre-researching alternative courses before results day. 'They're not blindfolded throwing a dart at a dartboard,' she added. It comes after experts predicted at the weekend results may remain higher than before the pandemic. Asked if there would be grade inflation this year, Dr Saxton suggested any rise in grades may be down to the cohort being cleverer. This is because they were the first cohort since the pandemic to have their GCSE grades returned to the old harder standards – meaning more people at the lower end may have been put off from doing A-levels. 'The practical consequences of that is that it did mean that fewer students than in recent years actually met the entry criteria that most schools and colleges would set for progression into A-level subjects,' she said. 'It probably means there's fractionally higher prior attainment across the cohort.' Dr Saxton was speaking at an event run by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi), about her views as the head of the UK's official admissions body. Asked about her 'hopes and fears' for the Government's up-coming plans for universities, due to be published in the autumn, she said she wants to see more action on students from disadvantaged areas. She said: 'We're definitely thinking about it and have been involved in some of the conversations. 'In terms of what I hope for, I'd really like to see more about access and participation plans, particularly from a regional angle – that regional disparity. That London advantage. 'More people in all parts of the country should get to benefit from higher education.' Last year, 27.8 per cent of pupils got A or A* grades – a record outside of the pandemic – and a record number also got accepted onto courses.
Telegraph
a day ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Students need to work 20 hours a week to make ends meet
University students in England must work for more than 20 hours a week to make ends meet, a report has claimed. The Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) said the pressures of part-time work were 'squeezing out' the other elements of the university experience, such as studying, sports, societies and socialising. It has called for maintenance support to be increased so all students can reach a 'minimum socially acceptable standard of living'. The findings come as students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland receive their A-level and Level 3 BTec results on Thursday, with many finding out if they have secured a university place. University sector leaders have suggested that cost-of-living pressures are affecting young people's choices, with more opting to continue living at home while studying and more taking on part-time work alongside their degrees. A report from Hepi, TechnologyOne and the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) at Loughborough University estimated that students need around £61,000 over the course of a three-year degree, or around £77,000 if studying in London, to reach a minimum socially acceptable standard of living – all excluding tuition fees. For students in England, the maximum annual maintenance loan, which is available only to people from low-income households, covered just half the costs faced by first-year students, the report said. It also found that even with the highest levels of maintenance support, students in England must work more than 20 hours per week to meet a basic standard of living. Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, said the Government is 'looking at all of the options' for how to support university students. When asked about cost-of-living pressures, Ms Phillipson said the Government recognises that there is 'still more to do' to tackle some of the disparities that young people experience. 'I do want all students to be able to get the full benefits of their time at university, to be able to take up internships, study trips (and) other work experience opportunities,' she said. 'I don't want students from less well-off backgrounds to be deterred from doing that because of having to take on more hours of paid work.' Last year, the Government announced that undergraduate tuition fees in England, which have been frozen at £9,250 since 2017, will rise to £9,535 for the 2025-26 academic year. It also announced that maintenance loans will increase in line with inflation in the 2025-26 academic year to help students with their living costs. The report suggested students may still be expected to undertake some part-time work, such as 10 hours a week, but the remainder should be covered by maintenance support. It also called for maintenance support to be 'pegged to inflation' and for household income thresholds to be increased so parents do not need to contribute to their child's living costs until they have enough money to meet a basic standard of living for themselves. Nick Hillman, the director of Hepi, said: 'Maintenance support is currently woefully inadequate, leading students to live in substandard ways, to take on a dangerous number of hours of paid employment on top of their full-time studies or to take out commercial debts at high interest rates. 'We hope our results will lead to deeper conversations about the insufficiency of the current maintenance support packages, how much the imputed parental contribution should be and whether it is unreasonable to expect most full-time students to have to find lots of paid work even during term time.' Josh Freeman, one of the authors of the report, said: 'These findings demonstrate three serious risks to UK higher education: access to higher education becomes more unequal, the quality of the student experience suffers and the sustainability of the sector is put at risk. 'The harm students currently face cannot be overstated. 'Too many students are struggling to cover their basic costs, let alone participate fully in higher education. 'It is not only good policy: there is a moral imperative to give students a fair chance of succeeding and thriving in higher education.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Universities ‘keen' to offer places to students even if they miss grades
Universities will be keen to offer places on degree courses to school leavers on A-level results day even if they have narrowly missed out on grades, experts have suggested. The head of Ucas has predicted that a record number of 18-year-olds are expected to wake up on Thursday next week to the news that they have been successful in securing their first-choice university. There will be competition between universities to fill places with more UK applicants, creating a 'buyer's market' for students. The majority of institutions have courses available through clearing – which matches applicants to university places yet to be filled – in the week before A-level results day. It comes as universities have been warning of financial pressures due to uncertainty about the recruitment of overseas students as well as years of frozen tuition fees by domestic students. A sample of 129 of the UK's largest higher education providers showed more than 22,600 courses with vacancies for undergraduate students living in England were available on the Ucas clearing site as of Wednesday. Seventeen of the 24 elite Russell Group universities had vacancies on courses for English residents – a total of 3,630 courses between them. A similar analysis last year, in the week before A-level results day, showed 18 of the 24 universities had vacancies on courses for English residents – a total of 3,892 courses between them – on the clearing site. Clearing is available to students who do not meet the conditions of their offer on A-level results day, as well as those who did not receive any offers. Students who have changed their mind about what or where they wish to study, and those who have applied outside the normal application window, can also use clearing. Eight days ahead of exam results day, there was a total of 22,698 courses through clearing across 129 institutions. A similar analysis last year – carried out at the same point before A-level results day and looking at the same range of higher education institutions – showed there were 23,306 courses through clearing. Ucas figures released last month revealed that the number of offers made to prospective undergraduate students from universities and colleges has reached a record high this year. Jo Saxton, head of the university admissions service, said she expected there to be 'slightly fewer' courses with vacancies in clearing this year due to the high number of offers already made to applicants. She said: 'Whilst the system isn't capped, universities do know how many they want to accommodate in their lecture halls and facilities, and I think that a lot of that is going to have been already pinned down through applications and offer-making prior to results.' Overall, 94.5 per cent of all students who applied to higher education before the Ucas January deadline have received at least one offer, recent figures show. Speaking about A-level results day, the Ucas boss said: 'I would anticipate a record number of 18-year-olds will wake up with confirmation, quite possibly even where they are near-misses.' She added universities are increasingly 'falling back in love' with their three-year undergraduate applicants as there is more 'uncertainty' around the international market and which overseas students are going to turn up. Dr Saxton said: 'It's a really, really good year to be a UK-domiciled 18-year-old that wants to go to one of our world-class universities. 'A couple of the directors of admissions and vice-chancellors that I talked to have talked about recognising, actually, that a three-year undergraduate student is stability for your teaching and learning, for your university community, for your financial planning.' Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think tank, said this year's cohort of school leavers are 'well placed' to get where they want to study even if they have narrowly missed their university offer grades. He said : 'The financial plight of universities makes them very keen to fill their courses and they will be falling over themselves to sign up good potential students. 'Not everything is rosy, of course, as the cost-of-living crisis has affected the student experience in deleterious ways, but ambitious school leavers are nonetheless well-placed to get where they want to be in this year's admissions round.' Mike Nicholson, director of recruitment, admissions and participation at the University of Cambridge, which does not take part in clearing, said it is 'probable' that universities will be 'looking very carefully' at near-miss students this summer. He said: 'If the student, for instance, needed three As [and] gets AAB as long as the B is not in something that's absolutely crucial for the course, I think there's a very strong possibility the student would find they'd be getting a place. 'If universities have the capacity to take near-miss students I think they'll be very keen to take them this year because those students are already in the system, they've already committed, they've possibly already even applied for accommodation. 'So, it's a much easier process to follow through on than having to go out into clearing and recruit somebody from scratch at that point in the year.' Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said: 'This year is shaping up to be a buyer's market in admissions, with many universities competing to recruit more home students. 'It's driven by basic financial necessity: institutions need to fill degree places as uncertainty grows over international student intakes and budgets tighten across the sector. 'In an increasingly volatile admissions landscape, we must ensure that the focus on financial sustainability doesn't further exacerbate educational inequalities already embedded in the system.' Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, said: 'It's certainly competitive between universities. 'From an applicant point of view, in a sense, that's a really good thing as it means you've got lots of choice. 'Clearing has changed, certainly compared to far back in the midst of time when I went to university when it used to be the kind of last-chance saloon, it's not that any more. 'Clearing is a much more widely-used tool for people to apply for the first time. 'It's also an opportunity if people want to change their minds they can use clearing to do that.' A Department for Education (DfE) spokeswoman said: 'While universities are independent from government and responsible for their own admissions decisions, it is essential that quality is maintained and that the students they admit are likely to succeed. 'Students deserve high-quality teaching, fair admissions and a clear path to good jobs, whether through a degree or technical route. 'Apprenticeship starts, participation and achievements are all on the rise, helping more people gain the skills they need.'
The Independent
6 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Universities ‘keen' to offer places to students even if they miss grades
Universities will be keen to offer places on degree courses to school leavers on A-level results day even if they have narrowly missed out on grades, experts have suggested. The head of Ucas has predicted that a record number of 18-year-olds are expected to wake up on Thursday next week to the news that they have been successful in securing their first-choice university. There will be competition between universities to fill places with more UK applicants, creating a 'buyer's market' for students. The majority of institutions have courses available through clearing – which matches applicants to university places yet to be filled – in the week before A-level results day. It comes as universities have been warning of financial pressures due to uncertainty about the recruitment of overseas students as well as years of frozen tuition fees by domestic students. A sample of 129 of the UK's largest higher education providers showed more than 22,600 courses with vacancies for undergraduate students living in England were available on the Ucas clearing site as of Wednesday. Seventeen of the 24 elite Russell Group universities had vacancies on courses for English residents – a total of 3,630 courses between them. A similar analysis last year, in the week before A-level results day, showed 18 of the 24 universities had vacancies on courses for English residents – a total of 3,892 courses between them – on the clearing site. Clearing is available to students who do not meet the conditions of their offer on A-level results day, as well as those who did not receive any offers. Students who have changed their mind about what or where they wish to study, and those who have applied outside the normal application window, can also use clearing. Eight days ahead of exam results day, there was a total of 22,698 courses through clearing across 129 institutions. A similar analysis last year – carried out at the same point before A-level results day and looking at the same range of higher education institutions – showed there were 23,306 courses through clearing. Ucas figures released last month revealed that the number of offers made to prospective undergraduate students from universities and colleges has reached a record high this year. Jo Saxton, head of the university admissions service, said she expected there to be 'slightly fewer' courses with vacancies in clearing this year due to the high number of offers already made to applicants. She said: 'Whilst the system isn't capped, universities do know how many they want to accommodate in their lecture halls and facilities, and I think that a lot of that is going to have been already pinned down through applications and offer-making prior to results.' Overall, 94.5 per cent of all students who applied to higher education before the Ucas January deadline have received at least one offer, recent figures show. Speaking about A-level results day, the Ucas boss said: 'I would anticipate a record number of 18-year-olds will wake up with confirmation, quite possibly even where they are near-misses.' She added universities are increasingly 'falling back in love' with their three-year undergraduate applicants as there is more 'uncertainty' around the international market and which overseas students are going to turn up. Dr Saxton said: 'It's a really, really good year to be a UK-domiciled 18-year-old that wants to go to one of our world-class universities. 'A couple of the directors of admissions and vice-chancellors that I talked to have talked about recognising, actually, that a three-year undergraduate student is stability for your teaching and learning, for your university community, for your financial planning.' Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think tank, said this year's cohort of school leavers are 'well placed' to get where they want to study even if they have narrowly missed their university offer grades. He said : 'The financial plight of universities makes them very keen to fill their courses and they will be falling over themselves to sign up good potential students. 'Not everything is rosy, of course, as the cost-of-living crisis has affected the student experience in deleterious ways, but ambitious school leavers are nonetheless well-placed to get where they want to be in this year's admissions round.' Mike Nicholson, director of recruitment, admissions and participation at the University of Cambridge, which does not take part in clearing, said it is 'probable' that universities will be 'looking very carefully' at near-miss students this summer. He said: 'If the student, for instance, needed three As [and] gets AAB as long as the B is not in something that's absolutely crucial for the course, I think there's a very strong possibility the student would find they'd be getting a place. 'If universities have the capacity to take near-miss students I think they'll be very keen to take them this year because those students are already in the system, they've already committed, they've possibly already even applied for accommodation. 'So, it's a much easier process to follow through on than having to go out into clearing and recruit somebody from scratch at that point in the year.' Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said: 'This year is shaping up to be a buyer's market in admissions, with many universities competing to recruit more home students. 'It's driven by basic financial necessity: institutions need to fill degree places as uncertainty grows over international student intakes and budgets tighten across the sector. 'In an increasingly volatile admissions landscape, we must ensure that the focus on financial sustainability doesn't further exacerbate educational inequalities already embedded in the system.' Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, said: 'It's certainly competitive between universities. 'From an applicant point of view, in a sense, that's a really good thing as it means you've got lots of choice. 'Clearing has changed, certainly compared to far back in the midst of time when I went to university when it used to be the kind of last-chance saloon, it's not that any more. 'Clearing is a much more widely-used tool for people to apply for the first time. 'It's also an opportunity if people want to change their minds they can use clearing to do that.' A Department for Education (DfE) spokeswoman said: 'While universities are independent from government and responsible for their own admissions decisions, it is essential that quality is maintained and that the students they admit are likely to succeed. 'Students deserve high-quality teaching, fair admissions and a clear path to good jobs, whether through a degree or technical route. 'Apprenticeship starts, participation and achievements are all on the rise, helping more people gain the skills they need.'
