Meaningless British High School qualifications

97% of students get a High School diploma

Increasing numbers of teenagers believe that three good A levels are no longer a passport to a university degree and are opting to take four or more subjects in an attempt to stand out from the growing crowd getting three A grades. A-level results published yesterday showed that more than 11 per cent of teenagers now get three A grades, increasing parental and school pressure on the most able students to go the extra mile with an extra A level to impress university admissions officers. This year's record crop of A-level results showed that the pass rate has exceeded 97 per cent for the first time, with the percentage of pupils achieving A grades up to nearly 26 per cent.

The results, published yesterday by the Joint Council for Qualifications, representing exam boards, also show that while the number of A-level candidates this year remains stable at around 317,000, the number of A levels taken has risen by more than 22,000. The number of candidates studying further mathematics, usually taken as a fourth A level to accompany maths, rose by 15.5 per cent with more than 9,000 entries.

Howard Loh, a pupil at Abingdon School, Oxfordshire, yesterday celebrated seven A grades. Similar tales abounded throughout the country. Tom Morley and Clarence Frank, pupils at City of London School, got six grade As each, as did Jenny Crowhurst, a pupil at Sutton High School in southwest London.

University admissions officials said last night that they were seeing a steady increase in the number of candidates with four or more A levels, excluding general studies. But many questioned the wisdom of such a move. Wendy Piatt, director-general of the elite Russell Group of research- intensive universities, said: "In many cases all candidates have three As - and increasingly four As."

Geoff Parks, director of admissions at Cambridge, said that taking four subjects was a growing trend, given that three As was now virtually a minimum requirement. "Some talented pupils do more than three A levels because they enjoy the work and the challenge. But you can see how some pupils might think that doing more might make them stand out from those with three As. "In fact they might be disadvantaging themselves by taking the edge off their overall performance by doing so much," he said. Dr Parks said that he hoped the introduction of the new top A* grade from 2010 would reverse the trend and persuade more students to take three because the key discriminator will be quality rather than quantity.

Angela Milln, head of admissions at Bristol, said that growing numbers of pupils with four A levels were applying to the university, which attracts a record 12 applications per place (rising to 40 for drama places). "Some do it just to stretch themselves," she said. "But I'm sure there are those who think that offering something extra will give them extra credit with universities. It won't."

Richard Cairns, head of Brighton College, said: "Increasingly pupils have opted for four or five as a way of distinguishing themselves from other candidates. Sixty per cent of our pupils do four A levels for this reason. "My own feeling is that pupils should not be encouraged to do too many A levels because it eats into time that should be devoted to all those other important aspects of an education such as sport, public speaking and the performing arts." He agreed that the A*, to be introduced next month for testing in 2010 as part of a package of reforms to make A levels harder, would ease the pressure on students.

Yesterday's record results meant that more pupils than ever met their university offers, but this also led to renewed concerns that the exams were getting easier. For the first time the exam board released a regional breakdown, examining pass rates and the proportion of students getting A grades in various areas of the country. It showed that the greatest improvements in the past six years have been in the South East, and the North East appears to be lagging behind. Between 2002 and 2008, the number of A grades in the South East rose 6.1 per cent, while in the North East there was an improvement of 2.1 per cent. Mike Cresswell, director-general of the AQA exam board, said that the figures suggested a worrying "long-standing historical pattern" with causes beyond what went on in school.

The results showed signs of a revival in traditional subjects, such as sciences and languages. The number of maths candidates rose from 60,093 last year to 64,593 this year. There are more candidates doing mathematics than at any time in the past. Entries rose by 2.7 per cent in biology, 3.5 per cent in chemistry and by 2.3per cent in physics, although numbers are still down on what they were in the early 2000s.

Fears that languages would undergo a slump in popularity proved unfounded as the number of candidates taking A levels in French rose to its highest level since 1993. Spanish entries were the highest they had ever been at 7,055.

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Slump Squeezes Enrollment at U.S. Private Schools

Private schools across the Washington region have begun to feel the effects of the nation's economic slumber, as some families seek more financial aid to help with staggering tuition bills and others simply opt out of paying for an education.

Independent and parochial schools in the seven Maryland counties closest to Washington lost almost 8,000 students between 2005 and 2007, a 7 percent drop, in a trend that is expected to continue this fall. The Newport School, an esteemed Montgomery County campus, is shutting down for lack of students after 78 years in operation.

The Archdiocese of Washington will offer an unprecedented $2 million in need-based aid this year, including a $400,000 "opportunity fund" targeted at nine struggling schools. The goal is to lure back families that can no longer pay the tuition and attract families that could never afford it. It's a strategy borrowed from commercial airlines: Better a paying customer than an empty seat. "This economic downturn is affecting everyone, absolutely everyone," said Patricia Weitzel-O'Neill, superintendent of schools in the archdiocese.

Enrollment has been declining in some of the area's public schools as well, chiefly because of a slowing birth rate, but not to the same extent. Public school enrollment in the Maryland suburban region slid by 1 percent over the past two years. Public school enrollment is rising in Northern Virginia, while private enrollment is essentially flat. Public enrollment in the District is falling, but enrollment in District archdiocese schools is falling faster.

Private school leaders say their community has seldom faced such a daunting combination of economic and socioeconomic woes. Tuition is rising faster than inflation, partly to meet a spiraling demand for aid. The birth rate is flat, thinning the ranks of prospective students. And consumers are reluctant to spend, unnerved by rising gas costs and falling stock prices.

The LaCourse family of Kensington decided this year that a five-figure annual investment in private education was starting to look more like luxury than necessity. So the LaCourse girls will enter kindergarten and third grade this fall at Kensington Parkwood Elementary, a well-regarded public school. By the time the two are grown, the private school where each began her education will be a distant memory. "It would have been more than $30,000 for the academic year, and that doesn't count summer, right?" said Lisa LaCourse.

The Washington region is served by a continuum of private schools, their tuition ranging from less than $10,000 a year to more than $30,000. Some are parochial schools that mirror public campuses in structure; others are nationally known independent schools that offer small classes and universal college acceptance.

An informal survey of officials at dozens of schools suggests that the region's most prestigious independent campuses may be least affected by the downturn. Such schools generally have many more applicants than spaces and a sufficient number who can afford the tuition. "But there's a big caveat here, and that's that we've never experienced the perfect storm before: rising tuitions well beyond inflation in a recessionary climate with a shrinking school-age population," said Patrick Bassett, president of the National Association of Independent Schools.

Even the most prestigious schools are dispensing more need-based aid to a greater number, Bassett said, and working harder to sell families on the virtues of a private education. Funds spent on need-based financial aid have almost doubled since 2001 among independent schools, said Betsy Downes, executive director of the Association of Independent Schools of Greater Washington. Tuition has risen 37 percent in that span; enrollment, 6 percent.

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Foreign enrollment soars in CA colleges

Colleges across the Southland are expecting a surge in international students this year, part of a nationwide trend that many experts attribute to a weak dollar. At the University of Southern California, applications for international students grew by 10 percent this fall. Loyola Marymount saw a 33 percent spurt and University of California, Los Angeles, reports a 25 percent increase. Nationwide, the government issued 10 percent more student visas this year, and colleges across the country are reporting increases in international student applications.

For students like Jean Foo, the decision to enroll in a U.S. college boiled down to simple math. A practicing lawyer in her native Singapore, Foo said an increase in American investors there made the idea of an American law degree more of a necessity than a luxury. But last July Foo would have paid 1.8 Singapore dollars for every $1 U.S. That would have left her paying 76,000 Singapore dollars in tuition and fees at UCLA. This summer however, the exchange rate is 1.3 Singapore dollars to every $1 U.S. The savings for Foo: 21,000 Singapore dollars. "Who knows if it will ever be this low again?" Foo said.

As a result, students worldwide are taking advantage and snatching up seats at American colleges. But international education advocates think the increase is about more than just dollars and cents. "We expect to see this trend continue," said Allan Goodman, president of the New York-based Institute for International Education. "But this is not just about money. It's the country's reputation for quality, lack of corruption and huge range of choice that attracts students."

Goodman said the number to focus on is not the ratio between the dollar and the euro, yen or peso. "The number is 4,000 - the number of accredited colleges and universities in the U.S - about a third of the higher education capacity in the whole world," Goodman said. "No other country has that many."

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks the country saw a nationwide dip in international students because restrictions on visas both in and out of the country were tightened. Horror stories of the mistreatment of international students as they attempted to get into the U.S. coupled with other tales of years-long wait lists for student visas discouraged many students from even applying to schools in the states. International student enrollment bottomed out during the 2003-04 school year when nationwide enrollment among these students dropped by 2.4 percent - the first time the country had seen a decline in at least five decades. But in 2007 the U.S. State Department gave out a record 600,000 new student-and-exchange visas.

Bob Ericksen, director of the Dashew Center for International Students at UCLA, said many students, unfortunately, still feel like they are harshly scrutinized when they are trying to come into the U.S. "Our students did a research project last spring about students' experiences acquiring visas and entering the country, and there was no shortage of unpleasant experiences shared," Ericksen said. "From applying for visas and dealing with uncooperative officials to dealing with officials at port of entry, many feel like they are being treated as criminals. They don't understand why they are receiving so much attention as potential criminals or terrorists when they are trying to come and contribute to society."

But despite some of the hurdles, once international students begin their studies in the United States, Ericksen said most agree the sacrifices were worth it. "Students report high levels of satisfaction... they report that it's a welcoming environment," Ericksen said.

Part of the reason why many students see American colleges as welcoming environments is because these institutions are, in fact, competing on a local, national and international level with each other for these students from abroad. "Many universities are trying to do more to globalize their campuses and provide students with a global education because this helps prepare students for the world out there that is increasingly small," said Csilla Samay, director of international outreach at Loyola Marymount.

Samay's department exclusively looks at ways to attract more students from abroad. The goal is to have international students make up 5 percent of the entire student body by 2010, up from the current 2 percent. Samay said the focus isn't on the financial contributions these students make - Loyola is a private institution so tuition for out-of-state students is the same as for California residents.

But at public universities international students pay top dollar for their American degrees and these students' economic contributions don't stop at the classroom. From buying textbooks, renting homes, and buying groceries, international students spent more than $2 billion in California alone in 2006, according to statistics from the International Institute of Education. Nationwide their contributions topped at $14.5 billion.

Still, Justine Su, director of the China Institute at California State University, Northridge, said the benefits of international programs are about the dual enrichment they provides students. CSUN's institute has created a "2 plus 2" program that allows American and Chinese students to complete their undergraduate degrees in China and the U.S. Su said the result has been that American and Chinese students are equipped with a global view that will then influence the work they do. "When we send students abroad they become our best ambassadors," she said. "They absorb new ideas and help people speak differently about the American people."

As for Foo, weeks before she starts her first semester in an American college she is nervous. She has no friends or family in the city and even a simple task like getting a driver's license is cause for anxiety. And despite the savings, Foo is still going to end up shelling out about $100,000 in U.S. dollars for tuition, books, food and other living expenses. Still, Foo believes some things are worth more than money. "Everybody has that American Dream, you know? You aspire to someday work or live in the U.S. ... to experience the American life," she said. "This experience is beyond monetary value."

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