University open days: your turn to ask the questions during clearing

August 15, 2018, 7:51 am

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You’re choosing a new home – so you’ll want the lowdown on the course, the university and the city

Students often feel under pressure to make a snap decision on a clearing place, but how do you choose the right one? It’s not all about the course – the university and its location will also have a bearing on how much you enjoy the coming years. An open day is your opportunity to get to know your potential new homes, and make an educated choice between them.

Prepare questions beforehand to make the most of the opportunity to grill course instructors in person

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Student finances: the lowdown on loans – and how not to blow the lot

August 15, 2018, 8:50 am

≫ Next: Private schools don’t act like charities, so let’s strip them of the benefits | Frances Ryan

≪ Previous: University open days: your turn to ask the questions during clearing

University life is a blast – but it doesn’t come cheap. How will you keep the bank from running dry? Seb Murray has some pointers

Amid the clamour for clearing places, students tend to focus on just getting into university, rather than on how to pay for it. A student loan is the most cost-effective method for many, as repayments are a portion of earnings and outstanding debt is written off after 30 years.

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Private schools don’t act like charities, so let’s strip them of the benefits | Frances Ryan

August 16, 2018, 12:00 am

≫ Next: Exam results day is a cruel trick played on students | Zoe Williams

≪ Previous: Student finances: the lowdown on loans – and how not to blow the lot

In subsidising wealthy people instead of helping poor children, they perpetuate inequality in education and beyond

As teenagers find out their exam results after what’s been a particularly stressful A-level year, I can’t help but think of how different the experience may be depending on whether your parent is, say, a cleaner or a barrister.

Ministers have been accused of a “total and abject failure” to widen access to top universities for disadvantaged students, after analysis by the Labour party found the proportion attending Russell Group universities had increased by only one percentage point since 2010. At the same time, educational charities warned this week that middle-class pupils and their parents were increasingly using university clearing to shop around for the best courses, to the detriment of their less well-off peers. This is the same old story; as with every other advantage wealth in education creates, those with affluent parents and schools can play the clearing system ahead of their poorer peers.

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Exam results day is a cruel trick played on students | Zoe Williams

August 16, 2018, 12:00 am

≫ Next: The arts teach us how to express ourselves – and give us freedom to fail | Daisy Buchanan

≪ Previous: Private schools don’t act like charities, so let’s strip them of the benefits | Frances Ryan

We put our kids under relentless pressure yet still claim their grades are being devalued. It’s time we showed some solidarity

It’s A-level results day. You will know this already, because the Telegraph will have some pretty teenagers on its front page, except not in hats or prefixed “Lady”. Or maybe you have an 18-year-old of your own, in which case you will have woken, ashen, from a night plagued by terrors, a clan of hyenas – internationally recognised metaphor for the forces of marketisation – attacking your baby, while you are powerless to help because you’re trying on shoes.

I was in on the ground of grade inflation, taking English the first year of GCSEs, which were apparently much easier than O-levels, the first skid on the slippery slope of declining standards. (I got a C – I draw no conclusions from this bitter experience.) This account of education has a satisfying simplicity: in 1987, marking changed, from grade-allocation quotas – 10% should get an A, 15% a B, and so on – to criteria referencing; like a driving test, each grade required a specific level of performance. Results went up every year for the 20-odd years thereafter. Degree results followed: in the decade between 2004 and 2014, the number of students getting a first went from 11 to 19%. Since human intelligence didn’t seem to have appreciated, and employers were always moaning that new entrants to the workplace couldn’t use photocopiers, it was obvious what had happened. Grades had been debased. Schools, in cahoots with examiners, were somehow gaming the system. Nobody was quite clear on the detail. Was it “teaching to the test”? Was there a slippage in marking rigour? Whatevs. If a quarter of students now got top grades, their achievements could not possibly be equal to those of the previous generation, in which only a tenth did.

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The arts teach us how to express ourselves – and give us freedom to fail | Daisy Buchanan

August 16, 2018, 1:00 am

≫ Next: Clearing: how to make sure you get an offer you can’t refuse

≪ Previous: Exam results day is a cruel trick played on students | Zoe Williams

As music and languages are cut in schools, students are losing the chance to engage in subjects that aren’t all about right and wrong

The German word for protractor is “winkelmesser”. I learned this during a stuffy late-autumn afternoon in 1998, and I will never, ever forget it. Online banking passwords come and go, I’m not entirely sure of the date of my wedding anniversary and I couldn’t tell you the exact number of women named Ellie in the most recent series of Love Island, but “winkelmesser” would be the word that died on my lips with me, if I met my demise in the manner of Citizen Kane.

It makes me sad that fewer teens than ever are engaging with the pleasures of the Winkelmesser. The Association of School and College Leaders has warned that funding pressures could mean that A-level French, German and music are cut from the syllabus altogether. Financial cutbacks mean that schools struggle to find staff and resources to offer these subjects to students. Another issue is that some state schools don’t have the resources to allow students to take four AS-levels, before concentrating on three A-level subjects – which means that students are under more pressure to choose subjects that seem “useful”. Last year it was reported that the number of students studying arts subjects had fallen to its lowest level in a decade.

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Clearing: how to make sure you get an offer you can’t refuse

August 15, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Clearing 2018: what to expect, who can benefit and how to succeed

≪ Previous: The arts teach us how to express ourselves – and give us freedom to fail | Daisy Buchanan

What do you want from your university years? Focus on five key considerations to unearth the clearing gems and avoid the turkeys

You probably spent months picking your ideal uni course at the start of sixth form – visiting open days, comparing league tables, talking to current students. Now you’ve been plunged into clearing and have to sift through thousands of courses in what feels like a matter of seconds. So how do you tackle it?

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Clearing 2018: what to expect, who can benefit and how to succeed

August 15, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Clearing shows how the government's university market has failed | David Morris

≪ Previous: Clearing: how to make sure you get an offer you can’t refuse

It’s a buyer’s market for students going through clearing, so even students holding offers should consider rethinking their choices

Last year, more than a tenth of all university places were filled via clearing, and 2018 looks set to be even bigger. What once was a last chance saloon for students who didn’t get the grades is increasingly about offering students the chance to reassess. Have they chosen the right course at the right place to spend three to four years of their life? It can’t hurt to shop around for a better fit.

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Clearing shows how the government's university market has failed | David Morris

August 15, 2018, 11:30 pm

≫ Next: Is clearing leaving students feeling anxious and isolated?

≪ Previous: Clearing 2018: what to expect, who can benefit and how to succeed

Introducing competition in higher education has had unintended consequences

What has been the most important higher education policy change of the last 10 years? Most would instinctively say £9,000 tuition fees. It’s the issue that has garnered the most media attention, started the most spats on social media and sparked the most political controversy.

But the real effect of £9,000 fees on universities is often overstated. It is intertwined with a far more profound policy change: the lifting of the cap on student numbers. This week, as 18-year-olds await their exam results, we’ll see the impact of this change once more as universities desperately fight to meet their student number targets. Some will be rapidly expanding, others fighting to hang on. In terms of pure market power, there’s never been a better time to be a university applicant.

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Is clearing leaving students feeling anxious and isolated?

August 15, 2018, 11:30 pm

≫ Next: Young people 'more sceptical about value of university' – poll

≪ Previous: Clearing shows how the government's university market has failed | David Morris

Getting a university place through clearing is now mainstream – but the transition to an unexpected institution can be difficult

When Freya Marshall-Payne checked her A-level results four years ago, she felt crushing disappointment. She had slipped a grade in one subject, jeopardising her place to read history at Oxford. “I completely lost the sense I had of a future,” she says.

Marshall-Payne entered clearing rather than take a place at her second-choice university. “It was a stab in the dark,” she says. “I think going into clearing was to escape that devastation.”

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Young people 'more sceptical about value of university' – poll

August 15, 2018, 4:24 pm

≫ Next: 'Job's a good'un, then': Manchester students open their A-level results - video

≪ Previous: Is clearing leaving students feeling anxious and isolated?

With 26,000 places unfilled on A-level results day, research reveals drop in number of pupils with college ambitions

Young people are becoming more sceptical about the benefits of going to university, despite a large majority saying they want to carry on to higher education, research suggests.

The findings coincide with the publication on Thursday of A-level and BTec level three grades for hundreds of thousands of sixth formers. University admissions offices were braced for a flood of enquiries after more than 600,000 candidates applied though the Ucas process this year.

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'Job's a good'un, then': Manchester students open their A-level results - video

August 16, 2018, 2:31 am

≫ Next: A-levels: proportion of students in England getting C or above falls

≪ Previous: Young people 'more sceptical about value of university' – poll

Around 290,000 students across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are finding out whether their hard work will be reflected in their A-level grades.

In this video from Manchester, three students from Rochdale sixth form college open their results and find that they've all passed with flying colours.

A-level results day 2018 - live

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A-levels: proportion of students in England getting C or above falls

August 16, 2018, 1:30 am

≫ Next: Three ways to secure your university future after A-level disappointment

≪ Previous: 'Job's a good'un, then': Manchester students open their A-level results - video

English results drop after exam changes, but Wales and Northern Ireland do better

The proportion of students in England gaining C grades or above in A-levels fell back this year, driven by a relatively weaker performance among girls, as schools and students continue to grapple with the introduction of new, more intensive exams.

The changes dragged down the overall UK pass rates, as the results in England contrasted with better performances in Wales and Northern Ireland. More than half a million students across the three nations were receiving their A-level results.

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Three ways to secure your university future after A-level disappointment

August 16, 2018, 2:00 am

≫ Next: What to do when A-level results day goes wrong

≪ Previous: A-levels: proportion of students in England getting C or above falls

Should you go through clearing, risk a re-mark, or resit your exams? Lucy Tobin finds out

If you’re staring at worse-than-expected A-level results, and you’ve missed out on your uni offer, you may feel confused about what to do next – as well as disappointed.

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What to do when A-level results day goes wrong

August 16, 2018, 2:07 am

≫ Next: Green space in every schoolyard: the radical plan to cool Paris

≪ Previous: Three ways to secure your university future after A-level disappointment

I failed to make my Oxford grades and couldn’t face my insurance option. Here’s how I made my plan B

A-levels live: follow latest news updates on our blog

In the summer of 2015 I was looking forward to reading history at Oxford. I had worked so hard and the future was bright. All I needed was three A grades at A-level.

Then came results day, and everything fell apart. I got a D in one English exam and missed the offer. I cried in public as friends disappeared to celebrate and strangers came to see if I was OK. I suddenly felt I had no control over my life and lost all self-belief.

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Green space in every schoolyard: the radical plan to cool Paris

August 16, 2018, 2:30 am

≫ Next: Better A-level grades than expected? Time for Ucas adjustment

≪ Previous: What to do when A-level results day goes wrong

Playground oases could benefit students and city alike, but will making them public prove too controversial in a city on high alert?

It’s only 10am but the heat is already radiating off the asphalt at the École Riblette, a primary school on the outskirts of Paris. Sébastien Maire, the city’s chief resilience officer, points to the school’s lower courtyard, a classic heat trap: surrounded by concrete walls that reflect sunlight inside. Last June, the courtyard hit 55C (131F).

“For three days, school activities stopped,” Maire says. “It was not possible for the children to study, nor to go into the schoolyard. We would forbid them because it’s 55 degrees – you can fry an egg on the ground.”

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Better A-level grades than expected? Time for Ucas adjustment

August 16, 2018, 3:00 am

≫ Next: Stormzy to fund Cambridge scholarships for black students

≪ Previous: Green space in every schoolyard: the radical plan to cool Paris

Result! You’ve hit your grades and then some. Ucas adjustment is where you get to upgrade your degree

Results day shocks aren’t always nasty ones. If you’ve done better than expected, and your grades exceed your firm choice, you can register for Ucas adjustment– which enables you to trade up universities or courses. Your firm place will remain safe until you decide to accept a better offer.

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Stormzy to fund Cambridge scholarships for black students

August 16, 2018, 3:21 am

≫ Next: A-level results raise policy questions – but first let's celebrate achievement | Jon Andrews

≪ Previous: Better A-level grades than expected? Time for Ucas adjustment

Rapper says black students should not think top university education out of reach

Stormzy has announced that he is funding two scholarships for black British students to go to Cambridge University.

The grime artist will pay the students’ tuition fees as well as a maintenance grant for up to four years of an undergraduate course.

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A-level results raise policy questions – but first let's celebrate achievement | Jon Andrews

August 16, 2018, 4:54 am

≫ Next: Tough A-level season for girls at Tauheedul Islam school

≪ Previous: Stormzy to fund Cambridge scholarships for black students

Despite the upheaval of the redesigned qualifications, many trends persist

We all know coverage of exam results day is fairly formulaic. Pictures of teenagers jumping up in the air clutching pieces of paper, stories about twins with a string of A*s who are now off to Cambridge, and a parade of people trying to explain all the changes that have happened that year and how it is now all different to before.

Students receiving their A-level results on Thursday will be the first to do so in the latest wave of redesigned qualifications in England. The changes, which began during Michael Gove’s tenure at the Department for Education, mean a move away from modular qualifications and coursework towards linear assessment at the end of two years of study – largely through examinations.

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Tough A-level season for girls at Tauheedul Islam school

August 16, 2018, 5:45 am

≫ Next: A-level results day 2018: drop in students scoring C or above after changes – live

≪ Previous: A-level results raise policy questions – but first let's celebrate achievement | Jon Andrews

All exams this year coincided with Ramadan as students fasted and ‘pulled all-nighters’

It was a tough exam season for this year’s A-level cohort, who sweated in airless assembly halls during the hottest summer in decades. It was arguably even tougher for the students of Tauheedul Islam girls’ high school in Blackburn, who also had Ramadan to contend with.

This year’s month of fasting coincided with the exam period, prompting some girls to stay up late feasting after sundown and others to set their alarms for 2.30am for a very early breakfast. “All our exams were in Ramadan and it was so hot,” said Sara Ziglam, 19, who got As in Arabic and psychology and Bs in biology and chemistry: “We were food deprived, pulling all-nighters.”

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A-level results day 2018: drop in students scoring C or above after changes – live

August 16, 2018, 6:05 am

≫ Next: Big up Stormzy. But Oxbridge must do more for black students | Jason Osamede Okundaye

≪ Previous: Tough A-level season for girls at Tauheedul Islam school

Results in England are down slightly after new exams are introduced while Wales and Northern Ireland improve. Follow the latest updates.

Share your reaction and experiences

2.05pm BST

Computing enjoyed a surge in popularity in 2018 with a 24% increase in the number of students taking the subject across the UK this year compared to last, writes Pamela Duncan, our data journalist.

Although the majority taking the subject are boys (88%) the proportion of girls taking the subject crept up from 9.8% in 2017 to 11.8% this year.

1.51pm BST

With sweltering temperatures and that distractingly bright sun, this year’s A-level takers faced a hard grind through hours of exams this summer. But for pupils at Taheedul Islam girls’ high school in Blackburn, conditions were particularly difficult, they told Helen Pidd, our north of England editor.

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