Top universities prepare to lower offers to fill places as they prepare for a wave of deferrals

Top universities are preparing to lower offers to fill their places this autumn as they prepare for a wave of deferrals, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

Russell Group institutions are hoping to plug the gaps left by international and European students, as well as British school leavers who decide not to take up places this year, by dropping their entry requirements.

“Universities want to fill their places,” said Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute. “There is a smaller number of 18-year-olds this year so it was always going to be a buyers’ market.

“If I were a young person this year getting my A-level results and I didn’t quite get what I needed for a top university, I would be on the phone to them immediately to say ‘Will you give me a place anyway?’ and they probably will.”

Vice-Chancellors fear that the prospect of online lectures, “virtual” freshers’ weeks and severely restricted social activities will put students off taking up their places this year.

Coupled with a collapse in the number of international students, whose high tuition fees are used to subsidise research, university leaders are formulating other ways to make up the numbers.

“At the top of the sector, universities have a lot of applicants per place, so you and I might defer our places but another two will accept theirs,"  one leading vice-Chancellor told The Daily Telegraph.

“Before they may not have got the grades and not got in, then gone to a university in the next tier. It is like the knock on effect. The institutions that require the highest grades will fill their places. If we do not fill all our places with AAA students, we may need to go to AAB.”

Last month, the Government announced that student number caps are to be brought back after fears that top institutions could bring down their rivals by poaching applicants.

Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, said he wants to avoid a situation where  cash-strapped institutions seek to plug black-holes in their finances by recruiting more undergraduates.

Mr Williamson said at the time: “I want to avoid at all costs an unseemly scramble for the domestic students who are looking to take up places in September.

“We must ensure that courses and providers aren’t oversubscribed, as this could result in there being standing room only in some lecture halls and tumbleweed in others.”

The move was aimed at preventing the country’s most prestigious universities from admitting more British students than normal as this would leave other universities in the lurch.

But Mr Hillman said that the cap is “very lax”, adding that it “does allow quite a lot of room for manoeuvre”.  Universities are allowed to recruit up to five per cent on top of their forecast for their UK and EU intake this year.

“Despite new student number cap, the situation will still be used to the advantage of the top universities and will come at the expense of the less prestigious universities,” Mr Hillman said.

The higher education watchdog, the Office for Students (OfS), said it is aware of the issue and is drawing up a new regulation that prohibits universities from using entry criteria that is “not consistent with the normal academic requirements of the course”.

Dropping entry requirements is encouraged by the regulator if it is aimed at admitting students from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, where it is aimed at promoting the university’s own self-interest, it is frowned upon.

An OfS spokesman said: “We are currently consulting on a new condition of registration. Universities will want to consider carefully whether significant changes in recruitment practice could constitute activities that undermine the stability and integrity of the English higher education sector”.

A Department for Education spokesperson said:  “We understand that this is a very difficult time for universities and students, which is why we have announced a series of measures, including student number controls, to stabilise the admissions process and protect students from harmful over recruitment among providers.

“Reducing entry standards could damage the integrity of our world class higher education sector, and we urge universities to act responsibly in the current situation.”