For HE institutions

This page sets out changes to the ‘high-grades’ policy for 2013-14. It reminds higher education institutions of the purpose of the exemptions list, and the importance of ensuring that their admissions and other staff understand this purpose – in particular, so that they can communicate clearly and accurately with prospective students and schools/colleges, and make appropriate decisions.

Student number control for 2013-14

There are a number of changes to the student number control policy for 2013-14. We wrote to institutions in December 2012 to notify them of preliminary decisions and changes concerning 2013-14. We wrote again on 18 January to confirm provisional student number control limit, and to set out these changes in more detail. 

The ‘exemptions list’ for 2013-14

The student number control at each institution limits the number of students starting HEFCE-fundable full-time undergraduate studies, or a HEFCE-fundable Postgraduate/Professional Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in a year.

Some students starting these studies are not counted against the limit because they are exempt on the grounds of their entry qualifications and grades.

Purpose of the exemptions list

The exemptions list has been developed for the practical and limited purpose of implementing the Government’s student number control policy.

We would be concerned if institutions were to use the list to inform decisions about the quality of students’ qualifications, the admission of individual applicants, or students’ eligibility for scholarship, bursary or fee waiver schemes.

Universities and colleges are autonomous organisations. It is entirely up to them to decide the suitability of candidates. In pursuing fair admissions, they should continue to consider all student applications to their institution, in the ways in which they have done traditionally, to ensure fair admissions solely on academic merit, and not make offers that exclude qualifications simply because they are not on the exemptions list. 

Ensuring capacity and flexibility in the student number control

We have taken steps to ensure that institutions will be able to offer fair access to all applicants:

• We believe that we are providing all universities and colleges with sufficient numbers in their student number control to enable them to admit high-achieving students with qualifications which are not on the exemptions list, and students with combinations of qualifications. This should also provide universities and colleges with the flexibility to make ‘contextual offers’ to students that are under-represented in higher education, if they so wish (that is, taking into account the context and circumstances in which the applicant is applying for higher education, including educational and socio-economic data, when making offers). 

• We will work closely with universities and colleges to ensure that their student number control is set at a sufficient level. Any university or college which says it needs more places to continue to offer fair access to all applicants can appeal against its student number control. We will listen carefully to their concerns if we feel that there is any risk that students are not being treated fairly. The deadline for submission of appeals is 1 February 2013. Guidance on how to appeal is included in our letter of 18 January. 

• We are particularly concerned to ensure that highly selective institutions (those with over 80 per cent of their intake falling within the ABB+ population) also have a student number control limit sufficient to allow them to continue to provide fair access to students that do not meet out definition of ABB+ or equivalent (including those high-achieving students whose mix of qualifications is not included in the ‘exemptions list’). We have therefore allocated additional student numbers to the most selective universities which otherwise would have been left with a very small student number control limit. Universities may still experience excess demand for places, and as has been the case in every other year, not all applicants will be successful.