Headmaster’s response to UCU report
Read the Headmaster’s letter in The Times today in response to the UCU report stating that universities should admit undergraduates after they have taken their exams. It makes a huge amount of sense for pupils to apply once they have their results.
Sir, The University and College Union’s recommendation that universities admit undergraduates after they have taken their exams (News, Jan 14, and letter, Jan 15) should be celebrated by schools, sixth-form colleges and young people in general. The UCU report’s intention is laudable, and the plan well thought-through, but the timeline suggested is unrealistic: squeezing university choices into the first week of August, somehow pushing A-level results at least a fortnight earlier, will never give the applicants time to take stock of their results and make informed decisions. Let us go further and push the university start date to January. This would allow prospective undergraduates and universities to be matched up after a decent amount of thought and courting, rather than an August speed-date.
Tom Lawson
Headmaster, Eastbourne College
