Top students turned away
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Your support makes all the difference.Top A-level students are being turned down without interview by universities as competition for places intensifies, according to a survey published yesterday.
The survey of15,000 candidates in independent schools found a 20 per cent increase in the number of excellent applicants rejected without interview compared with the previous year.
The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Girls' Schools Association, which include the most academic fee-paying schools, say some candidates who are expected to achieve three As do not get a single offer.
Nearly 500 candidates, many of who were predicted to get three A grades, were turned down without interview. Most were applying to study popular subjects such as English, medicine, history, law and physiotherapy. One university had 4,000 candidates for 96 places in history and another had 384 for five places in English.
Candidates for medicine with predictions of four A grades are sometimes turned down if they fail to get into Oxbridge. Some top candidates receive only one offer.
Both new and old universities are rejecting very bright students in some subjects, say the independent school heads who compiled the survey.
They accept that universities are under pressure because of the explosion in the numbers entering higher education. The proportion of candidates who are interviewed has fallen sharply. But anecdotal evidence suggests that the most popular departments are filling up their places with bright candidates before the official deadline for applications.
Janet Lawley, head of Bury Grammar School for Girls and co-chairman of the working party, said: "For a small but significant number of very able candidates these rejections cause a lot of distress. They would feel that they had been seriously considered if they were interviewed."
Dr Philip Cheshire, head of Warwick School, the other co-chairman, said: "The Government has introduced a strategy for large numbers of people to go into higher education but the system is not really geared to cope with it."
The heads say that they believe a new system in which everyone applied after receiving their results would be fairer.
n Ministers will today announce plans for new school examination league tables which will show how schools have improved and put results in context.
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