There is an increasing gap between the conditional offers many universities are making and the actual grades required to secure a place on the courses applied to. This is because of the Government's decision two years ago to alter the rules for funding of places on courses. Now universities that recruit students with grades of ABB or higher can be sure that each will be fully funded, even if the number joining is higher than the quota agreed with the Government previously. There is no financial penalty to them for this over-recruitment. This means a decision to make a minimum offer of ABB, for many universities is the only sensible one.
However, because the absolute numbers of students obtaining ABB or better is falling (due to other education policy changes), universities in this position actually end up taking many students who do not reach the offer made. Beaumont has seen a large increase in this occurrence in the last two years.
Whilst undoubtedly providing a benefit to many, this new policy has had the unforeseen consequence of creating confusion for Year 13s who are not sure now of the likelihood of their being accepted onto this vast plateau of courses now set at "ABB" . There is also a dearth of offers made in the "BBB" and "BBC" area, as these have all been escalated to the magic "ABB" level.
This situation is analysed well and in greater detail by the BBC Education department in this excellent article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29141762
Beaumont's advice for students is to talk to the specific admission tutors at your targeted universities and ask them what percentage of students have recently been accepted with lower final grades than "ABB", if this is a concern for you.
