We are calling on universities across the UK to exercise emergency flexibility, leniency, and a greater consideration of predicted grades when confirming offers for the 2026 academic cycle—specifically for students taking STEM and Mathematics subjects.

The 2026 examination series has seen an unprecedented and disproportionate spike in difficulty across key STEM subjects, most notably exemplified by the widespread distress and formal complaints surrounding the recent Mathematics papers. Well-prepared students who have consistently achieved top marks throughout their two years of study have been left blindsided by papers that deviated drastically from past examination conventions, featuring overly abstract phrasing, inaccessible problem structuring, and extended algebraic manipulation.  

While we recognize that exam boards utilize flexible grade boundaries to adjust for overall cohort performance, the extreme and anomalous nature of this year's papers has severely damaged student confidence and created a highly unequal testing environment. Relying solely on the final scaled marks from these specific papers will not provide an accurate or fair reflection of a student's true academic potential, dedication, or subject mastery.

Many of these applicants hold conditional offers based on predicted grades that were rigorously earned through consistent performance in mocks and assessments. To prevent a generation of aspiring scientists, engineers, and mathematicians from being unfairly locked out of higher education due to the structure of a single examination series, we urge universities to:

 Implement Contextual Flexibility: Actively take into account the documented nationwide difficulty of the 2026 STEM/Maths papers when reviewing final results on A-Level and Higher Results Days.

 Weight Predicted Grades Heavily: Give greater weight to consistent internal track records, mock results, and teacher-predicted grades for students who narrowly miss their conditional offers.

 Lower Strict Entry Discrepancies: Broaden the leniency margins for offer holders in affected subjects, recognizing that a lower-than-expected raw grade this year does not equate to a lack of capability.

The hard work of the 2026 cohort deserves to be measured by their two years of dedication, not by a flawed and inaccessible examination standard. We urge higher education institutions to stand with students and ensure fairness in admissions.