Sheffield universities working to honour all first-choice offers after exam grades U-turn

In an announcement on Thursday, the government’s Higher Education Taskforce – which includes the Russell Group of universities and representative body Universities UK – agreed to honour all-first choice offers for thousands of students who, after being rejected last week, have now had their results upgraded.

The government has also lifted the cap on places for medicine, dentistry, veterinary science and teaching courses in the next academic year while additional funding for teaching grants is also being provided to increase capacity in medical, nursing, STEM and other high-cost subjects.

Universities minister, Michelle Donelan, said she wants universities to “do all they can” to take on students who achieved the necessary grades this year, or offer alternative courses or deferred places where required.

Sheffield Hallam University said it has now received the revised A-Level grades from the universities admissions service UCAS and is in the process of reviewing all impacted applications.

A university spokesperson added: “Over the clearing and confirmation period, we have tried to be as flexible, fair and understanding as possible, by confirming places for a large number of students at slightly below the offers we made to them earlier in the year.

“We are reviewing decisions on an individual basis for those applicants that were unsuccessful but have now had now received higher grades. We can confirm that we intend to honour original offers as far as possible so that students can start with us in September.

“There may be a very small number of cases where we cannot do so due to constraints, such as available work placements for certain health or teaching courses. In this case we will offer a place at the next available intake.”

UCAS received upgraded results for 160,000 A-Level students last week, after the government announced students would instead be awarded their centre-assessed grades (CAGs), or calculated grades if higher in a major U-turn in policy.

Around 100,000 students had already secured a place at their first-choice university when they received their grades on August 13, but of the remaining 60,000 who had their results upgraded under the system, around a quarter will now meet the conditions for their original first-choice.

The University of Sheffield said it was working through the new CAGs and will be contacting individual applicants in due course.

It added: “We are pleased to be able to accept all applicants who now meet the terms of their original offer by September 7 (August 31 for dentistry).

“For those students who now meet the requirements of their offer but are applying to courses with capacity constraints, we will do all we can to offer a place this year and we will guarantee deferred entry to September 2021."

The institution said it will also review applications on a case-by-case basis for students who received higher results than originally awarded, but still do not quite meet their original offer terms, as it may still be able to offer them a place.

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