Thread by @ProfRachelGaN

Applications to Cambridge these days come with a certain amount of contextual information. This lets admissions tutors know, for example, if applicants come from a school with particularly low GCSE grades or from which very few students have applied to Oxford or Cambridge before.

This info is used to generate what are called "flags" on applications, to highlight students for whom this contextual information should be taken into account:
undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying/conte…

Now here's the thing: I know it may be practially impossible to #HonourTheOffer for every Cambridge applicant who has missed their grades in the #AlevelShambles. However, I believe Cambridge can and should offer places to students whose applications included contextual flags.

Why? Many of these students attended schools with below average performance - that's why their applications are flagged. They are outliers at their schools, and we know that the A-level results algorithm has mistreated outlier students who don't fit the curve of past results.

For these students to hold a Cambridge offer, they've already been interviewed & often taken written tests. That gives us better data on these students than is provided by their A-level results given that their is evidence that the algorithm has specifically disadvantaged them.

So come on @Cambridge_Uni - #HonourTheOffer for students with contextual flags. You've got the data to do this, and where you lead others may follow.

Bit of context for my "practically impossible" comment above...

https://twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1294390523369852928?s=19