Isabel Nisbet, chief executive of Ofqual, considers that university admissions prevent thousands of teenagers from entering universities through not declaring their decisions and called for them to be "less of a lottery". She says that school system and its procedures are inherent unfair. Nisbet believes that pupils who attend schools where teachers could manipulate admissions rules have a greater chance of getting a place. In her opinion, these schools are often fee-paying.
Isabel Nisbet mentioned in her
essay papers: "It should not be the case that the applicants with the best advice and guidance have a competitive edge. It should be possible for all students to understand admission requirements without an expert decoding them."
She says that hundreds of teenagers at the age of 13 or 14 were choosing the qualifications that later were considered as unsuitable by some universities to which they applied. She gives an example of such qualifications as engineering, business and law studies.
"The same qualification can elicit different views, from 'this is the most desirable qualification' to those who think a course is not a credible qualification. It isn't always down to rational reasons and is sometimes a personal preference. Teenagers are not able to guess the personal views of a university and they need to know whether they are burning bridges at the age of 13."
According to Nisbet, scores of pupils were confused over whether universities would prefer students with A-levels to take three subjects and show the best results, or take more subjects to make them broad-minded people. She believes that although there are many universities and all of them are different, it is crucial to make some helpful messages to the applicants-to-be.
