Prestigious universities will require A* grades

More universities will be raising the entry requirements to their institution following this year’s leap in UCAS applications. 

Plans have been proposed to change the admissions procedure to avoid the reliance on predicted exam results.

Some of the UK’s leading universities have announced they will be asking prospective students for A* grades at A Level in order to secure a place.

The A* grade was introduced last year to help universities select exceptional pupils after more than a quarter of A Level entries were awarded an A grade. Students must achieve an average of at least 90 per cent across their A2 examinations to secure the top grade. 

Four higher education institutions, Imperial College London, University College London, Warwick University and Cambridge University, implemented this as part of the entry requirements for their most competitive courses. 

Earlier this month, Cambridge announced that its standard offer would be A*AA for 2011 entry. The University of Oxford will also be asking for A* grades for most of its science and maths courses. Both universities will require at least two A* to study combined degrees in maths and philosophy. Bristol, Exeter and Sussex will also demand A* grades for entry to some of their courses. 

Ian Blenkharn, head of admissions at Exeter, said that the decision “reflects the exceptionally high quality of applicants” and “the considerable competition for places”. It is claimed that 47 per cent of its applicants to economics had been predicted at least one A* last year. 

The news comes as the Russell Group, an organisation of the UK's leading research universities, warned students against taking "soft" subjects at A Level as this could reduce their chance of being accepted to the most competitive universities. They recommend studying "facilitating subjects", such as Mathematics, English and Languages. 

Joshua Smith, an A Level student applying for university entry in 2011, told The Journal: “I feel like the A* grade adds more pressure to an already stressful situation.

"Applying for a university requesting high grades is always a risk as you don’t know how you will perform on the day of the exam and might miss out on a place at university despite getting good grades.” 

The changes to the application system are aimed to tackle the problem of inaccurate predictions this year. Under the current system, applications must be submitted to universities by 15 January and are accepted or declined based on teachers’ predictions rather than actual results. Evidence suggests that up to 55 per cent of predictions are inaccurate. 

The coalition government has suggested making fundamental changes to tackle this, including moving A Level examinations to earlier in the year to establish actual results sooner.