Making the grade

guardian.co.uk 18th August 2006
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After an agonising wait for A-level results and the first, hectic day of Clearing, most applicants had a place on a course. Alexandra Smith and Jess Goodman report. Additional reporting by David Brill

In the early hours of Thursday morning, while the rest of England was sleeping, anxious teenagers were perched in front of computers, frantically scouring the internet.

A busy period for the jittery teens, according to EducationGuardian.co.uk's records, was just past the witching hour. Students by the thousands were apparently whiling away the early hours until they received their A-level results searching the website's Clearing listings service.

Yesterday's record high A-level grades mean fewer places are on offer during the mad annual Clearing scramble, especially at the most popular institutions, according to the University and Colleges Admission Service (Ucas).

After a frantic day in Clearing rooms, after phone lines opened at 8am, Ucas reported that there were 37,398 courses with at least one vacancy left. There were more than 96,000 candidates eligible for Clearing and, by 4pm yesterday, more than 61% of university applicants had confirmed which course they would be studying and where.

That was a slight increase compared to day one of Clearing last year, but it will bring little joy to universities because overall applications have decreased this year, down to 294,576 from 301,230 last year.

The Ucas online vacancy search service had registered more than 500,000 inquiries by 4pm, and the number of hits on the EducationGuardian.co.uk listing service - which lists vacancies by subject, region or institution, updated throughout the day - had reached almost 79,000.

Enquiries by EducationGuardian.co.uk to a selection of universities show a range of Clearing vacancies were up for grabs in the lead-up to the first year that universities in England will charge as much as £3,000 in top-up fees. Nottingham, Surrey, Birmingham, Oxford Brookes and City Universities each had about 200 places when Clearing opened yesterday.

Teenagers were not only using the internet to search for Clearing vacancies. For the first time, some sixth-formers bypassed the nailbiting wait at the schoolgates and collected their results online.

In a pilot scheme by Britain's biggest exam board, Edexcel, 200 students in the West Midlands and Wiltshire were able to use the Results Plus service to obtain their grades from 6.30am today.

Sundeep Johal, from Sutton Coldfield College, found she had received a B in English Literature at 7am yesterday but, with another B in media studies and an A in sociology, had to wait three hours before she had a deferred place in Birmingham University confirmed.

Sundeep said: "It was exciting to be one of the first to do it. But I think I preferred getting my results the normal way. You go in with your friends who you've been working with for two years, so it's more memorable and special if you are all together."

Sian Brunt, however, who learned of her A in drama studies through the new system, could see the benefits. She said: "Although I liked being with my friends to get the other results, I think for some people who are really worried it would be good to be able to see their grades at home first and then come and see everyone. It also means you don't get that big rush where everyone wants their results at the same time."

The online system, which will also be available to 1,500 GCSE students next week, gives a complete breakdown of module results as well as a "gradeometer" to determine how close pupils were to certain grades. For 350 GCSE mathematics students, it will also allow them to see copies of their completed exam papers onscreen, with marks for each page.

The exam board hopes the service will soon become standard, streamlining university admissions and giving students and teachers more detailed information about exam performance.