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As we seem to be moving inexorably towards accepting Centre Assessed Grades (CAGs) for GCSEs and perhaps also for A levels (and other Level 3 quals), this is a short thread on the implications for university admissions
As of Friday c.40K students were placed at Insurance (2nd choice) or Clearing - that's 40K students whose place at University might be changed if CAGs were implemented. (and that number will have increased a lot over the weekend)
There were a further 92k students 'holding offer' - in other words where the university or the student has yet to decide to confirm the place - perhaps because waiting for appeals
When universities make an offer that is 'conditional' on their grade achievement, they are contractually obliged to accept those students who meet the conditions.
Meanwhile, some universities will have filled their places with students who missed their grades and might still have missed them based on CAGs...
Which means their capacity to accept more students who have met their conditions through CAGs will be limited - both because of the temporary cap on recruitment but in some cases, due to physical capacity too
There is an obvious need for the government to lift the numbers cap regardless of algorithm or CAGs, and this will help universities be as flexible as possible. But it won't entirely mitigate the extra volume required to meet contractual obligations if CAGs are used
From a university admissions point of view, reverting to CAGs for A levels and BTECs is likely to cause chaos - grade inflation creates more students qualified for university after all
