More university places for top A-level grade students

Many more university places than expected are going to be allocated to top-grade A-level applicants this year. Universities Minister David Willetts said 85,000 places – rather than the anticipated 65,000 – would go to students with AAB A-level grades, writes Sean Coughlan for BBC News.

This represents about one in four entrants who is now much more likely to get his or her first choice. Willetts also admitted that a higher education bill, taking forward a raft of reforms, was now “very unlikely”. In a speech to a conference of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, Willetts set out a progress report on changes to university funding and places.

He signalled afterwards that the white paper published last summer was looking increasingly unlikely to become legislation. But many changes – such as promoting more of a market in places – are already going ahead.
Full report on the BBC site