Exam crisis: Universities to receive money for extra places

The Government is to set up an emergency rescue package to allow students deprived of a university place by the A-level fiasco to take up places later this term – although many universities suggested there was not enough time left to admit them.

Estelle Morris, the Secretary of State for Education, promised yesterday to give universities extra cash this term if a lack of resources was preventing them offering a place to a student who, once his or her A-level grades had been reissued, met the entry requirements.

She added that universities had promised to keep places open for any students next year who found they met the entry criteria after their A-levels were regraded.

The fiasco over marking this year is expected to lead to many more students taking a gap year before they start their university courses.

"Let's say the inquiry does find that the grade boundaries have been set incorrectly," she said. "I would ask for them to be recalculated so that all those students are given the grade they should have had." She stressed that no student would be denied a university place already accepted if – as could happen – their grades were lowered as a consequence of the inquiry.

Many universities said the start of term was too close to admit students found to have lost places unfairly.

Dame Ruth Deech, principal of St Anne's College, Oxford, and chairwoman of the university's admissions committee, said such candidates would have to take a year off.

"It isn't as harsh as it sounds but there is always another year," she added. "There is always time to try again once you have got the firm results."

Dame Ruth blamed the chaos on the pressures of the exam system. "The chaos now is the end product of a sort of desperation about getting As and it shows what happens when you start opening the door to any sort of social or political engineering of marks and outcomes in order to achieve a particular end," she added.

At Warwick University a spokesman said the university would advise any students affected by the marking debacle to take a year off and start their courses next autumn. He said the university was already full because the record A-level results meant more people than expected had met their grades.

The spokesman added that many of the affected students may hope to take up Oxbridge places if their grades improved after the inquiry. "Oxford and Cambridge do not start lectures until the second week of October so will have a little more time to deal with the crisis than other universities."

Geoff Parks, an admissions tutor at Jesus College, Cambridge, said: "It is impossible to judge how many of our candidates who appeared to have missed offers could be affected by this. But we will do everything we can to admit them this autumn. We would only suggest they take a year off and take their place next year if their results come so late in term they would find it difficult to catch up."

A spokeswoman for the University of Oxford said: "When the results of any regrading of A-levels are known, the university and colleges will work to ensure that candidates who meet their conditional offers are offered places for deferred entry or, if it proves possible in individual cases, accommodated this year."

Diana Warwick, chief executive of Universities UK – the umbrella body representing vice-chancellors, said: "Universities are obviously very concerned about the potential impact on students and will look to be as flexible and helpful as possible.

"However, they are constrained in their actions by the nature of their funding and the limitations on the teaching and accommodation facilities available."