Are unconditional offers a blessing or a curse?

I can remember receiving an unconditional offer from my chosen university, and joking with my parents that I didn`t need to revise for my exams. `Whatever I get they have to admit me!` I thought, believing this was a licence to relax in my studies, and perhaps work on my computer game technique. Thankfully my parents made sure I knuckled down and got to work, and in the end I actually chose to go to another university after receiving my grades - but receiving the offer felt like a golden ticket.

There has been concern over the precipitous rise in unconditional offers granted during the last 5 years. In 2013 the number of unconditional offers granted to 18 year olds was a modest 3000. In 2018 however the number had risen to a staggering 117,000! Quite an increase there, nearly 40 fold by my calculations. There has also been a huge growth in the so called `conditional unconditional` offers, which didn`t actually exist in 2013, but were granted to 66,000 students in 2018. I wasn`t actually aware of the `conditional unconditional` category, but have since learnt that it means the student is granted the place without question, with the stipulation that they make that university their first choice.

Concerns have been raised by both schools and colleges that those students granted such guarantees are underachieving in exams, spending less time revising by taking `their foot off the gas,` according to the Office for Students (OfS). Researchers also found that those with unconditional offers were likely to miss their predicted marks by as much as two or three grades. It is disquieting to think that there may have been many A-Level students who were on course to receiving A grades, but after being granted unconditional offers became less studious, and ended up getting only C grades.

OfS chief executive Nicola Dandridge has expressed serious concern about the huge rise in unconditional offers, in particular critiquing those `with strings attached, which are akin to pressure selling`. With the introduction of university fees the students, as opposed to local councils, now pay the majority of the bill, and securing placements may have become more of a commercial enterprise. Indeed, the Office for Students has likened the commonplace use of unconditional offers to `pressure selling,` and has said that universities may even be contravening consumer law. This is hardly the language one would expect when discussing the education sector, but the simple truth is that university places do need to be `sold` for the institutions to remain functional.

Despite these concerns there are many who are of the opinion that unconditional offers have a vital role to play in ensuring everyone has a chance of going to university. Chris Husbands, vice-chancellor of the OfS has said that these offers give a chance to those students who `might otherwise not have the opportunity to study at a very high level`.

`What unconditional offers can do when used in this way is to remove one element of pressure from the system and then ideally help students to achieve their potential and to thrive.`

The Office for Students has said it will be monitoring the situation closely, and will be looking for a correlation between unconditional offers, and students not attaining their predicted grades, or dropping out soon after beginning their courses. They will also be encouraging students to be aware of any `pressure selling practices,` and have said they will take regulatory action, which may include fining universities, and forcing changes in their internal practices.

The Student Room, an online forum where students can discuss all matters relating to university, has been discussing the pros and cons associated with unconditional offers for some time. In one post a student said they had received four unconditional offers out of their five applications, but each had the stipulation that they had to be selected as the first choice. This left the student rather disillusioned, feeling that `the universities do not actually care if I get the grade, instead, they just care about how many places they fill and want to guarantee as many as possible with the appeal of an unconditional offer.`

Universities should only admit students onto courses who are academically suited for them. But with the growing commercialisation of the education sector, it is inevitable that the primary concern of universities will be ensuring their courses are fully booked up. Empty seats in the lecture hall means a loss of income. For many receiving an unconditional offer will be confidence boosting, and galvanise them to get the best grade they can; for others though it may mean they get a place on a course not suitable for them, and end up dropping out of university all together.