Strange to read all the American academic bloggers posting on their preparations for the new academic year, when over here we won’t be restarting for about another month. (I don’t even know the exact date, since I won’t be doing any teaching until after Christmas…) When I go into the department later this week, the place will still be virtually deserted.
And we’re still in the middle of the clearing frenzy anyway, with thousands of places still up for grabs across the country. I don’t have the energy to write a long post about the stupidity of our admissions system. But it is crazy: through the centralised admissions body UCAS, students have to apply to universities (up to 6 courses, if I remember rightly) several months before they take their A-level exams, and universities offer them places that are conditional on achieving certain, predicted, grades. The students then have to choose just one course out of those offers. If, come August, they don’t get the required grades for that place, the offer will fall through and they have to resort to clearing (or re-apply next year). If they get much better grades than expected, they have to decide whether to stick to that original choice or give it up and take a gamble on clearing in search of a course with higher grade requirements (and therefore, they hope, of higher quality), or re-apply next year. The upshot is stress all round for students, for university staff, for everyone involved. Any chance of reform? You must be kidding.