The University of Cambridge has made conditional offers requiring A-level applicants to achieve a minimum of two A* grades and one A grade in their exams this summer.

The unprecedented move means that 76 A-level students must achieve an average of 90% across all A2 units in at least two subjects.  This number represents 2.5% of all conditional offers made for October 2010 entry.  The offers have been made across all Colleges and all subjects.

However, the University Undergraduate Admissions website states that “the standard A-level conditional offer made by the Cambridge Colleges for 2010 entry will be A*AA.”  None of the subjects’ websites suggest that applicants may be expected to achieve two A* grades.

Dr Geoff Parks, Director of Admissions, told Varsity that “the possibility of offers asking for more than one A* being made was very clearly flagged in our Prospectus”.

The Admissions website states: “All Colleges modify offers to take account of individual circumstances.  More challenging offers may be set to ensure that an applicant can cope with the demands of exams in cases where some doubt exists.”

Dr Parks said he was “sure that every one of the 76 offers made falls into this category.” He added, “There has been no change to our advertised standard offer.  We haven’t changed our policy.”

The suggestion that applicants may have been unaware of the possibility of the higher entry-requirements was dismissed.

However, Joe Farish, CUSU’s Access Officer, was concerned that the higher grade requirements might deter able state-school students from applying to the University.  Speaking to Varsity, he said, “The A*AA has unfortunately deterred stronger applicants who lack confidence in their application.  I know from my own experience that many strong applicants from state schools have the ability to get into Cambridge but lack the confidence to apply, and I worry that the introduction of the A*A*A will make this problem worse.”

Lord Mandelson, Secretary of State, has warned universities that they will face fines of £3,700 for every extra place awarded.  However, Dr Parks denied that the higher entry-requirements indicated an attempt to restrict the increasing number of students applying to Cambridge.

“We were not fined in the last admissions round and it is not yet clear that there will even be any fines associated with over-recruitment in this admissions round – it will probably depend on which party is in power after the election.  Because we are in the fortunate position that we are the first choice of the vast majority of our applicants, we are able to predict admissions numbers with much greater accuracy than most other universities.  The risk of being fined is therefore very, very small and has not influenced admissions policy,” he told Varsity.

“The real question is: Would these students rather have an A*A*A offer or no offer?” he concluded.

The news comes amidst reports that the Universities of York, Nottingham and Newcastle raised A-level entry requirements after students had applied.  The changes have been made partly due to swelling numbers of applicants – figures released by UCAS on Tuesday showed a staggering 22.9% rise in the number of home and overseas students applying to UK universities.

UCAS Chief Executive Mary Curnock Cook warned that “this cycle will be very challenging and competitive for applicants and the higher education sector generally. There has been a steady increase year on year since 2007, but this year shows a sizeable leap in applications.”