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Why does it matter how students get their place in university?

Analysis: As institutions race to recruit, Eleanor Busby looks at how tactics affect school leavers

Eleanor Busby
Wednesday 29 January 2020 21:06 GMT
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Universities are competing for students at a time when the overall number of applications is falling
Universities are competing for students at a time when the overall number of applications is falling

Universities have increasingly come under fire for the tactics they use to recruit school leavers.

First it was for unconditional offers – where students are offered a place on a degree course regardless of their exam grades – and now the spotlight is on "strings attached" unconditional offers, in which students are told they are guaranteed a place on the course but only if they make it their first choice.

The latest data from Ucas shows that there were seven universities last year where more than half of the offers made to students were “conditional unconditional” despite a government crackdown.

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