New blow to A-level credibility as law schools decide to set admission tests

Eight of Britain's most prestigious universities are to sideline A-levels as an entry requirement for law courses from November and set their own admission tests instead.

Their decision is being seen as a massive blow to the credibility of A-levels in helping universities select the brightest candidates. Currently, one in five students taking the exam gains an A-grade.

The law schools, led by Birmingham University, say the new tests will help them "discern intellectual potential" among the large number of well-qualified applicants.

The move follows decisions by Oxford and Cambridge universities and some London colleges to set similar tests to determine applications to medical and dentistry courses.

The eight say the new two-hour tests will involve multiple choice questions and short essays. The first candidates will sit the tests in November.

Dr Tim Kaye, the undergraduate law admissions dean at Birmingham University, said: "The growing number of candidates with top scores at GCSE and A-level has made it increasingly difficult for the most competitive law schools in the country to rank their applicants satisfactorily.

"The National Admissions Test for Law will allow them [the universities] to pool their expertise ... and give more even-handed and transparent consideration to all of their candidates."

The decision will give added urgency to the Government's inquiry into the secondary school examinations system - headed by Mike Tomlinson, the former chief inspector of schools.

The inquiry is due to publish its interim report later this month and will attempt to restore credibility to the examination system in the wake of last year's crisis when nearly 2,000 students were given the wrong A-level grades.

The eight universities taking part in the scheme are Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Durham, East Anglia, Nottingham, Oxford and University College London.

Law is an extremely popular subject with thousands of applicants facing rejection for courses at leading universities. Birmingham has around 2,000 applicants for just 200 places.

Dr Kaye added: "In GCSEs and A-levels we already have measures of existing educational achievement, which is important.

"But we would like to do more to identify relevant intellectual potential, which is also important," he said.

An official review of university admissions is being carried out for the Government by a team headed by Professor Steven Schwartz, vice-chancellor of Brunel University. The review is expected to recommend more widespread use of testing in determining applications to help disadvantaged candidates in schools that perform poorly at A-level to obtain places at the top universities.