One casualty of Covid was the UK exam season, which was cancelled for two years due to lockdowns. A-level grades were set by schools instead, with little external moderation and, unsurprisingly, shot up, meaning a lot more young people than usual found themselves at highly selective universities. This year, the government began the painful job of resetting and deflating the system. Inevitably, that meant more missed university offers, causing angst for students and parents caught up in the mess.
It’s important to remember, though, that the post-Covid resumption of this annual bunfight over places at the most selective or “high-tariff” institutions predominantly affects only a small portion of society. Around five times more students from the highest-income quintile will end up at these high-tariff universities, with all the future benefits that brings, than will make it from the lowest income one.
A comprehensive overview from the Institute for Fiscal Studies earlier this month showed just how embedded social inequality is in the education system. There has been virtually no change in the school “disadvantage gap” between children on free school meals and their peers in the past 20 years. The belief that education can somehow “fix” inequality seems unfounded.