Exam remarks

Bit of a spat between OFQUAL who blame the rise in remarking as a tactical device from schools and the Private Heads association which rejects this and states the issue is the poor quality of marking standards.

The figures are startling. The number of A level and GCSE remarks have more than doubled in the past five years, whilst the percentage of grades changed has held steady (at around 19% of challenges).

Beaumont School believes both sides of this debate are correct. Schools are getting better at advising students as to how best to approach a decision to remarks. However if the marking standards were better there would not be the huge number (77,400 in 2014) of grade changes. Certainly, in the world outside education, a near 20% fault rate in its product would soon render a business extinct.

There is, of course, an equity issue here as well. The cost of remarks might be prohibitive for some students on low household income, so a further divide in education outcome based on financial status may well have opened up, and be growing each year.

Choice of A levels advice from universities

The Russell Group of universities offer some additional guidance about the current status of AS levels and their view of Core Maths in their FAQ section at the bottom of this link:

http://russellgroup.ac.uk/for-students/school-and-college-in-the-uk/for-teachers-and-career-advisers/

Worth keeping up with, though, still, every university, including the Russell Group ones, develops independent policies that suit themselves.

Valuable experience

This is the time of year when an increasingly broad range of enrichment opportunities, mainly for Year 12s, get promoted. Already we have seen local legal work experience, science lab work from GSK and various lecture series programmes to sign up to. Now we have the Balliol College Floreat Humanities extension opportunity opening up for its second year. By early January the university taster course season start sin earnest with the London University Taster Programme.

Never has there been more competition for university and higher apprenticeship places, but never also has there been so much support for the pro-active and focused students.

Credit-Suisee Insight Days

This is for Year 13s who HAVE applied to university this year. They are designed to explain a career path in investment banking. General one on 22/7/15 and one for females only on 24/7. Both held at Canary Wharf. travel expenses reimbursed.

You must have an AAB or better A level prediction and a "record of high achievement outside of academia"

Deadline to apply is 31th May.

See Sixth Form Office for more details.

On the job training opportunities

Evening event 24th June in central St Albans. Chance to meet a range of employers in professional services i.e. accountancy, engineering, legal etc who offer "earning whilst learning" opportunities.

More details on www. cityofexpertise.com/events

New UCAS service

UCAS now will allow up to five universities to contact an applicant who is unplaced i.e. eligible for Clearing, offering a relevant course once summer results received. UCAS will be passing on these results therefore for the first time.

All should note that this is an opt-in service which UCAS are currently contacting applicants about. There is no requirement to accept any of these places if offered. The general Clearing service is still available to be used in the standard way.

Changing patterns of degree course choices

An interesting study of recent trends in UK university course choice reveals many surprising and less surprising elements:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32230793

Less surprising -

The work carried out to encourage more students into the hard sciences, probably linked to more general economic realities, appears to have caused the increase of 50% in Chemistry and Physics applications. General engineering is up by 80%.

English (-10%) and Languages (-24%) have suffered.

The work put in to encouraging females into traditionally male dominated disciplines has also apparently paid off with a 25% increase for Engineering and 35% for Computing from female applicants.

More Surprising -

History has bounced back from an initial decline after tuition fees were raised and applications are now 4% higher than in 2012. A previous study of FTSE100 chief executives showed that more had a History degree than any other. So clearly the skills and interest developed here have commercial uses.

Other areas to contemplate:

Computing is now in the top 10 course choices with 75000+ applications per year. However it is one of the courses with the highest drop-out rates so caution must be exercised in making what might seem a sensible choice to some in the modern era.

Applications are at all-time highs despite the fee increase. However UCAS estimate that the figure would be even higher without, which seems to make fundamental economic sense. This does also suggest that demand for university degrees is currently highly price inelastic (or in other words there are not considered to be good substitutes for it) and that the loan system has addressed the affordability issue effectively.

It is encouraging that the young UK population is seeking to be more highly educated than previous generations. Something that is possible essential in the modern world.