It's that time of the year again. I don't mean the time when students reappear in large numbers on the campus (although that has started to happen today). It's the time when candidates for university admission for next session seat casting around for advice.
I suspect I am not alone in having been asked, over the years, to talk through their choices with a number of friends, relatives and neighbours - or with their offspring. And despite the fact that there is now a wealth of material available to try to guide choices, it's interesting to see how poorly informed many applicants are. This applies to those attending good as well as poor schools; those with parents who are themselves graduates as well as those with no family background in higher education. I participated in a breakfast discussion at the Guardian newspaper a couple of years ago on this topic, and we all agreed that as more information has become available to applicants, so they have become overwhelmed by the volume and come to depend more on gut instinct, advice from trusted sources, and peer group pressure - much of it misleading.
To those of us who work in universities it can come as a surprise to find that none of the things we 'know' about university hierarchies, appropriate A level combinations, the fees regime, subject choices and many other things are completely unknown to the people around us in our own families or living on our streets. I've been told that universities that languish near the bottom of every league table are among the Russell Group; that subjects that are not taught by any of the elite universities are amongst the most prestigious; and I've even had people mix up the two universities in various cities when one is a high-performing institution with a world class reputation and the other is, let us say, not!
And I'm sorry to say that schools often don't do what they ought to help. I have talked with a pupil who already had 4 grade As at AS level and who is clearly in the top few percent of the national distribution but whose school has given her advice on both subject and university advice which would clearly vastly underplay her talents and potential.
I know of another pupil who was told to aim for Cs at A level, and the university choice to go with that, but who was fully capable of As and Bs. The school perhaps preferred to provide advice en masse for its students rather than nurturing the best.
I have watched as graduate parents, or others directly connected with universities, have allowed their offspring to take A level combinations that immediately preclude them from applying to institutions that would stretch their abilities because those combinations do not lead to any recognised degree programme.
This is all somewhat distressing, but I don't really know what to do about it. The task of bringing light to the advisory process seems so great. I suspect that many schools and colleges do not have the time to devote themselves to individual advice to each pupil, and that in many schools the range of experiences that teachers have is itself somewhat limited. How many schools in the UK do not have a single teacher who attended a top-rated university? How many A level teachers of key subjects (such as Physics, Economics or History) do not actually have a degree in that subject but in something else? One proposal that emerged a few years ago was for universities to be tasked with a primary role for the provision of advice on higher education in schools. It's not a bad idea - although it would need heavy resourcing.
Over the years I have tried to help a number of sixth formers on an individual basis. I do take some comfort that in every case they do seem to have been satisfied with the courses they were admitted to - and in almost all cases they listened to my advice.
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