The UCAS system of Adjustment provides students with a second chance of getting on to their first-choice course.
Adjustment is an optional process that allows students who have met and exceeded the terms of the conditional offer that they are holding to refer themselves for consideration by another institution.
Seventy one students from under-represented backgrounds who referred themselves for consideration on A-level results day (15 August) were offered places on courses from English to Computer Science, and 67 accepted. Seventeen medics got places through Adjustment, while others will study Economics, Engineering, Law and Natural Sciences.
City & Islington College student Kaan Evcimen will be studying Natural Sciences at Trinity Hall after gaining his place through Adjustment. He said: "'Getting into Cambridge was simply a dream, which is now somehow reality - I'm super grateful for the opportunity and I'm excited to get started with studying the subject I love at the best university in the world.'"
Andrew Wynn, a student at the London Academy of Excellence (LSE) Stratford, was also given a 'second-chance' place at Downing. He says: "Medicine is such a oversubscribed course so when I got an email saying I could still get a place at Cambridge through Adjustment, it me work even harder for that slim chance. I don’t think I’d have got the grades if that email hadn’t come through.
“I didn’t tell my family about Adjustment, so when I told them I’d got into Cambridge, there was a confusion, then disbelief, then my mum and sisters just started crying.”
Yasmine Deflaoui, also from the LSE, is the first in her family to go to university, and will be studying Psychological and Behavioural Sciences at Homerton College.
She said: “I’m still can’t believe it! It is incredible that a university like Cambridge recognises that a lot of students haven’t really managed to reach their full potential at interview time, and understands the efforts we’ve made to get the grades.
“It’s so important that Cambridge has a scheme like Adjustment, which is helping to narrow the access gap and support people who maybe didn’t go to the best schools or didn’t have the best opportunities in life to succeed.”
Duke of York’s Royal Military School student Fiona Saunderson will be studying Law at Christ’s College. She said: “Cambridge is getting more and more diverse and schemes like Adjustment open it up to everyone without lowering standards. The scheme still makes you work hard for your place, which is as important for the University as it is for its students.”
Dr Sam Lucy, Director of Admissions for the Cambridge Colleges, said: “When we announced the Adjustment scheme, we received many emails from students saying the second chance of a place at Cambridge was inspiring them to work even harder to achieve the best A-level results they could.
"It is wonderful to see that so many who may not have managed to show their full academic potential during the main Admissions round have gone on to excel at A-level due to their hard work and determination.”
She added: “We are delighted to have been able to offer so many of them a place at Cambridge in the pilot year of Adjustment and hope that more disadvantaged students will make an application to Cambridge in future years with the knowledge that this route will also be available to them.”
Each student who applied under the Adjustment scheme had to meet at least three criteria (known as ‘contextual flags’) demonstrating they have not had the same educational advantages as others.
Competition for Cambridge’s approximate 3,500 undergraduate places grows fiercer each year, with more than 14,000 students who apply not being made an offer.
Adjustment is the latest in a series of schemes aimed at boosting diversity, with generous financial assistance available through the
Cambridge Bursary Scheme
and via Colleges' bursaries, a
Bridging Programme
being introduced at Corpus Christi College next year and a University-wide Transition Year programme set to launch in 2022.
