British universities have become more selective about the caliber of students they’re accepting for enrollment. According to research published by The Daily Telegraph, while universities are expanding the number of places offered to students with the highest A-level results, they are placing strict limits on the slots available to those who didn’t get a First on their exams.

Bristol is just one of the schools that is making room for an additional 600 AAB students this year, with University College London adding nearly 300 more. Although Newcastle didn’t commit to an exact number, the school’s representative said that they will also increase the quota for top-scoring candidates.

Other universities such as Birmingham, East Anglia, Exeter, Essex and Kent said additional places may be made available through the traditional clearing system for these high-scoring students.

The Telegraph’s report comes less than a week before students all around Britain will find out their A-level scores. More than 300,000 graduates sat the exams this year and it is anticipated that the number of papers graded A* or A will either fall or stall this year due to the introduction of a tougher grading system. Last year about 9% of students scores an A* and 27% scored at least an A, representing a three-fold increase since the early 1980s.

The tougher grading criteria was put into effect to combat what is being seen as grade inflation that makes A-levels less valuable as a tool for assessing student knowledge. This is going to serve as bad news for many, as they can anticipate lower scores at the same time as universities are getting stricter about their admissions criteria.

Andrea Robertson, from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, told the Times Educational Supplement: “For some courses, there is an increased likelihood that some institutions will not be able to accept near-miss applicants, when in previous years they might have been able to.”

Sue Kirkham said that although universities looked favorably upon near-miss candidates in the past, this will change going forward. When British universities were capped at the number of students in each achievement level they could take, with high fines for each one accepted over the quota, this is the first year where controls have been lifted for higher-achieving candidates.

The controls remain in place, however, for students scoring below AAB, which means the schools will devote their efforts towards recruiting those with the highest A-level scores. Most schools say they are committed to making at least some spaces available to be filled through clearing, but the applications from students with AAB+ will go to the top of the pile. Some, like Essex, Coventry and West London are even offering merit scholarships to AAB+ candidates ranging between £1,000 and £2,000.

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Elly Nowell, 19, said she felt like “the only atheist in a gigantic monastery” when she visited Magdalen College for her interview. She subsequently decided to withdraw her bid to read Law at the university.

The Telegraph reports that in a ‘parody’ of the kind of rejection letter universities often send to unsuccessful applicants, Miss Nowell launched a withering attack on the college whose alumni include Oscar Wilde, King Edward VIII and George Osborne, which she later posted online.

The college has a fierce reputation. In 2000, Magdalen refused a place to Laura Spence, a former comprehensive pupil with five As at A-level to her name. The decision was described by the then-chancellor Gordon Brown as an “absolute scandal”.

Miss Nowell, a former pupil of Brockenhurst College, Hampshire, wrote:

“I have now considered your establishment as a place to read Law (jurisprudence).

“I very much regret to inform you that I will be withdrawing my application.

“I realise you may be disappointed by this decision, but you were in competition with many fantastic universities and following your interview I am afraid you do not quite meet the standard of the universities I will be considering.”

A spokesman for the university said Miss Nowell had withdrawn her application on the UCAS system shortly after her interview and emailed the college informing them of her decision.

“The application was withdrawn before she would have been aware whether or not her application had been successful.”

In the letter, Miss Nowell made it clear that it was her experience at her interview that had put her off. Under the subheading “Guidelines for Re-application”, she wrote:

“While you may believe your decision to hold interviews in grand formal settings is inspiring, it allows public school applicants to flourish and intimidates state school applicants, distorting the academic potential of both.

“It was while I was at interview that I finally noticed that subjecting myself to the judgment of an institution which I fundamentally disagreed with was bizarre.

“I spent my entire time there laughing at how seriously everything was being taken.”

She added, dryly:

“Perhaps offer a glass of water in your interviews next time; it is rude to torture guests.”

An Oxford University spokeswoman said:

“Despite what the candidate said, we would point out that the actual admissions figures speak for themselves: of the seven UK students who received offers for law and joint school courses at Magdalen, only one was from an independent school.”

Nowell said she hopes to study at University College, London instead.

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The Government has been accused of “passing the buck” on higher education by the University and College Union, saying that the move threatens “decades of progress”.

Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary, said:

“This study shows how over the last 30 years higher education funding has shifted from the state to the student.

“This Government’s regressive university reforms will accelerate this process further and see annual public investment in teaching and research fall to its lowest proportion in over a century.

“You cannot maintain a world-class university system in the 21st century by turning the clock back to the 1900s and before.”

For this coming September, universities will be able to charge up to £9,000 in annual tuition fees – almost three times the current maximum. This rise is to offset the 44 percent drop in the amount of state funding available for teaching and research over the next three years.

The UCU study forecasts that public expenditure on teaching and research will fall from £6.6bn in 2011/12 to £3.7bn in 2014/15.

It claims that annual Government funding for teaching and research will make up just 15 per cent of universities’ income by 2015 – a percentage that hasn’t been this low since the 1900s.

And the UCU say that this drop will place a heavy burden on the shoulders of students.

“The study claimed the proportion of funding from students – through higher tuition fees – is expected to reach 47.2 per cent by 2013/2014. This would represent the highest level since the 1890s. In the early 1970s, this share stood at just over six per cent.”

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said:

“Our reforms put university finances on to a long-term sustainable basis. Students will have more study choices and funding for universities will follow their decisions.

“We estimate that total funding for the sector could increase by around 10 per cent over the spending review period.”

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