No extra help for A-level students hit by Raac concrete crisis as results due

Offering a one-off exams boost for pupils affected by the concrete crisis in schools would not be fair to everyone else, the head of England’s exams regulator has said.

Sir Ian Bauckham, chief regulator of Ofqual, said it would be “difficult” to allow a special uplift to pupils’ results in schools affected by the crumbling concrete Raac. He said that if a dispensation was allowed for these schools, then other adjustments for things like teacher shortages might have to be made at other schools.

His comments come as education experts predict that school leavers will have an easier time getting into their chosen university than their predecessors in the past two years.

Experts have said that universities are keen to fill spots with more UK students due to an anxiety about falling numbers of international students. Universities will also reportedly be less stringent about grade offers as the Covid bump of students has worked its way through the admissions system.

School leavers will receive their A-level results on Thursday.

Sir Ian, at Ofqual, also said that he would be “surprised” if the Raac disruption faced by schools in England affected overall exam results this summer.

Speaking about whether Raac pupils should get boosted grades, he said: “It’s very difficult to know how you would draw a line and maintain fairness if you were going to say that it would be right, for example, to give a 10 per cent uplift to one set of circumstances, but not to a range of other circumstances that other people might argue have impacted the quality of education in the schools that they’re running, or they’re working in, or attending.”

Mark Corver, a former director of admissions service Ucas who now runs a consultancy advising unversities, told The Observer that this year’s school leavers could be hopeful ahead of Thursday.

He said: “All the signs are there that for 18-year-olds holding offers it will be a better admissions cycle than in either 2022 or 2023.”

He said that worries about international students numbers would benefit UK students, adding: “This is a big issue in the Russell Group, which is extremely dependent on these international students for revenue. Universities used to picking and choosing have been very worried by the swings.”

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Police Institute think thank, said some universities are expecting to lose up to half of their international student intake due to recent tightening of visa conditions by the Conservative government.

He said that the “Covid bulge” of students will have worked its way through the system.

He added: “If you missed a grade you might log on to Ucas and find the university has offered you a place anyway. If not, it is always worth getting on the phone.”