Students Seek Private Tuition To Prepare For University

University students have contacted private tuition agencies for help bridging the gap between A-levels and undergraduate study amid concern that schools are failing to prepare pupils for the demands of higher education.

Agencies that have traditionally coached children for 11-plus exams and helped pupils through resits are reporting increased demand from undergraduates.

Fleet Tutors, which has around 7,000 clients, said university students were the fastest growing sector of its business. The agency provided tutors for just over 130 university students in the past year.

Liz Sowden, an English tutor who has coached undergraduates, said the most common request she received was for help structuring a long essay: "The length you have to write for university - 3,000 words, 5,000 words - you don`t get experience of that at A-level, and there`s nothing at university that really prepares them for it. It`s just expected that they can do it."

Reforms to A-levels in 2000, which split courses into six modules, with pupils able to resit exams to improve their grades, have been criticised for failing to prepare students for university life. Students take AS-levels in the first year of the sixth form and face more challenging A2 exams in the second year.

Sowden said: "There`s always been a gap. It`s just that ever since the introduction of Curriculum 2000, schools are teaching very much to a January exam or a January piece of coursework. Teachers can`t spend as much time teaching the students the skills they need."The government wants universities to be given a bigger role in shaping A-levels. The qualification will be adapted to provide greater depth of learning. The exams watchdog, Ofqual, has been instructed to change the rules on A-level resits to prevent students from retaking large numbers of modules.

Tuition agencies also say that tutors are being asked to fill gaps in students` knowledge. Anita Moss, director of the online agency First Tutors, cited the example of: "Somebody who hasn`t done maths A-level going on to do economics and realising there`s a lot of maths in it".

Moss said her agency had also seen an increase in requests from university students for an essay-writing service. "We`re declining them; we don`t consider that to be tuition."

First Tutors this year received 10% of their inquiries from undergraduates. Moss said: "They`re going to be for `money subjects` - maths, law economics, IT - subjects where, to achieve higher earning potential, people really want to make sure they`re getting the grades."

Kate Shand, founder of the London agency Enjoy Education, said the student market had doubled in the past year. "Because there`s a divide now between university syllabus and AS-levels, we`ve definitely had a growth in that area. Students are looking for help with financial modules, accounting modules, as well as with English essay-writing skills.

"Some degrees are much more difficult then others, and much more of a jump. Students are aware that the jobs market is fierce, as well."

Agencies are also reporting greater demand from A-level students after the scramble for university places this year. One in three candidates missed out on a place at university this autumn after record numbers applied.

Jane Race, a partner at Surrey agency Southern Tutors, said: "Many more A-level students seem to be resitting exams to get a slightly higher grade, as they are worried about the rejections others suffered this year if their grades were not quite what had been asked for by the college or university of their choice."

Private tutoring is an unregulated industry, and tutors are not required to have a qualification in teaching or even a relevant degree. It is also a booming business: a survey published last year [2009] found that 43% of young people in London had received private tuition during their school years, up from 36% in 2005.

Moss said: "Ours is a free market. People can sign up and advertise themselves as tutors. To be frank, different people go for different things. If you`re struggling with your 17-year-old son, let`s use an undergraduate from the university he aspires to and he might listen to him."

The educational charity the Sutton Trust plans to launch a pilot project next year giving children from less well-off homes access to private tuition to help them achieve top grades in their maths GCSE.