Students left in dark over A-levels

Students are beginning courses before the re-grading

By Sean Coughlan BBC News Online

Tom Underwood has just started at university. The only problem is that he does not know how long he is going to stay.

Because although he has taken a place at Sheffield University - if his coursework is re-graded upwards, he could be offered a place at Cambridge that he thought he had missed.

The chaos of this year's A-level grading has left students such as Tom Underwood facing tough choices without little or no official information to help him.

I keep trying to just get on with it, but it's been so dragged out. And I feel so sorry for people who haven't got any places at all

Tom Underwood, now studying at Sheffield University

With no idea about when or if he will have a re-grade on his disputed history coursework, Tom, who had been pupil at Old Swinford Hospital in Stourbridge, has decided to begin a course at Sheffield.

He has paid his tuition fees, rented accommodation and bought his books - but in the back of his mind is the awareness that he could still be going to Cambridge.

"I'm really enjoying it here at Sheffield. But I don't know what would happen if the re-grading meant that I had a place at Cambridge."

Clouded

And he says that the beginning of his time at university has been "clouded in many ways."

"I keep trying to just get on with it, but it's been so dragged out. And I feel so sorry for people who haven't got any places at all."

In Tom's case, this year's A-level results left him with three grade As and two Bs - but the B grade was in history, and this meant he lost his place to study the subject at Selwyn College, Cambridge.

This B grade was the result of a disputed E grade in his coursework - which on a re-mark became a D grade.

An independent assessment of the coursework, carried out by a former examiner, claimed that the coursework was worth a B.

And if the coursework is re-graded as a B, it will be enough to lift his overall grade to an A - which will entitle him to his place at Cambridge.

Stress and uncertainty

This uncertainty has meant weeks of stress and worry for Tom and his family.

"Right up to the night before the re-mark I could have been going to Cambridge," he says.

And now, having opted for Sheffield, he faces the possibility of abandoning his studies there and starting again next autumn at Cambridge.

"There's been a major problem somewhere for so many peole to have been affected - and I can't see how Mike Tomlinson can say that no one is to blame."