A-levels: Is the uni intake of 2023 'the unluckiest year'?
This Is Why
Sky News
4.0 • 552 Ratings
🗓️ 16 August 2023
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Pandemic disruption, rising grade boundaries, and a larger than average number of people applying for university places have all placed pressure on A-level grades.
On the Sky News Daily, Niall Paterson speaks to Grace Brookes, who picks up her A-level results on Thursday, about the challenges she's faced since the pandemic. The vice-chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University Chris Husbands explains the pressures on universities themselves, and Professor of Social Mobility, Lee Elliot Major explains why he believes the 2023 intake are the unluckiest in a generation.
Annie Joyce - senior podcast producer
Rosie Gillott – podcast producer
Alex Edden – interviews producer
David Chipakupaku – podcast promotion producer
Paul Stanworth - editor
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | For unlimited all-day travel in London, think TFL. With the daily cap fair frozen until March |
| 0:06.2 | 2027, travel as much as you like on tube, bus, Elizabeth line, DLR and overground, knowing you'll |
| 0:14.1 | never pay any more than £8.0.0.0.0. Download TFL Go to plan your journey. |
| 0:24.0 | To the Mayor of London and TFL, every journey matters. |
| 0:27.6 | Always use the same card of device when touching in and out for full terms and conditions, |
| 0:29.0 | such TFL fare capping. |
| 0:31.9 | Easter eggs? M&S, of course. |
| 0:39.1 | I mean the new Chok Marks egg, with salted pretzel pieces and honey almond new guy is pretty spectacular and what about the big daddy loaded half egg filled with caramel and peanut chunks and dark chocolate pieces |
| 0:45.2 | or the Swiss chocolate crispy cloud egg with crunchy corn flakes salted caramel and |
| 0:51.2 | almond yes please so if you're looking for amazing eggs, it's got to be M&S. |
| 0:56.4 | This is not just food. This is M&S food. Selected stores. |
| 1:01.3 | Welcome to the Daily. I'm Neil Patterson and I'm pleased to say it's that time of year again. |
| 1:06.4 | You know the one when photographers are actually invited into schools to take pictures of pretty teenage |
| 1:12.1 | girls, and when rich middle-aged white men take to Twitter, to say they're two D's and a |
| 1:17.2 | you, never stop them from ruling the world. Yep, you've got it. It's A-level results day. Well, |
| 1:23.0 | sort of. We are recording this on Wednesday. Results are out Thursday. But just how many tears will have |
| 1:29.5 | flowed by Friday? Because this year's cohort has been described as the unluckiest in years. |
| 1:35.3 | COVID hit them hard, missed exams and class time. We're now in a cost of living crisis, |
| 1:40.5 | and the cost of higher education keeps rising. Universities themselves are struggling with their funding, and there's more competition for places. |
| 1:49.0 | Plus, it's not easy being a teenager. |
| 1:52.0 | In a while, I'll be looking more closely at the university sector and hearing from the professor |
| 1:57.0 | who's labelled this academic year as the unluckiest. |
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