The government is calling on universities to abandon "unacceptable" admission tactics - which place pressure on candidates to accept places.

The Education Secretary has slammed "conditional unconditional" offers, which means a student's entry is guaranteed if they rank the university as their first choice.

MP Damian Hinds has written to 27 universities who made these offers during the 2018 application process - The University of Kent is one of the institutions that has been contacted.

He says that the process is unethical and risks damaging students' prospects.

In response to government calls for a review into the use of conditional unconditional offers, Universities UK said: "There are clear benefits for students in universities being able to use a variety of offer making practices that reflect the individual student’s circumstances and potential.

“As with all offers to study at university, universities must be able to explain why and how they award unconditional offers with conditions attached.

"We are already working together with UCAS, reviewing existing guidance and gaining a better understanding of how these offers are being used.

"This work will help inform the review and includes surveying universities to understand how good practice is being adopted, and holding forums to discuss best practice.

“It is essential that admissions processes and policies are fair and transparent, underpinned by clear criteria and in the best interest of students.”

St Mary's University, Twickenham, University of Nottingham and University of Sussex have since announced they will no longer be making unconditional offers.

The University of Kent, which is based in Canterbury and Medway, says it also has no intention of resuming this offer in future admission cycles.

A university spokesman said: "The University of Kent has previously piloted a conditional to unconditional offer scheme in a limited number of subject areas for applicants who chose Kent as a firm choice.

"This pilot project ran for two admissions cycles - 2017 and 2018. During this pilot period Kent targeted offers to students in these subject areas who were predicted to achieve very high grades; as a result only 3% of total offers were conditional to unconditional.

"The pilot scheme was launched following analysis of our applicant behaviour which indicated that a number of high quality applicants were choosing competitor institution that made unconditional offers.

"In order to match similar schemes offered by these competitor universities, Kent developed a pilot scheme to explore the impact of this on those applicants who received multiple conditional to unconditional offers from elsewhere.

"Having monitored the applicant response to the Kent pilot, and determined that although successful in converting applicants to Kent, the University was concerned that applicants, while still achieving entry level grades, did not perform as well as expected in their A-levels. As such, following a review of the scheme in October 2018, the University’s Student Recruitment Board recommended termination of the pilot and stopped making unconditional offers in October 2018.

"The University has no intention of resuming this offer scheme in future admissions cycles."

Universities who have been contacted by the Education Secretary:

1. University of Roehampton
2. Loughborough College
3. Kingston University
4. Sheffield Hallam University
5. University of Brighton
6. Birmingham City University
7. Nottingham Trent University
8. Bournemouth University
9. Staffordshire University
10. University of Lincoln
11. University of Hertfordshire
12. Royal Holloway, University of London
13. Oxford Brookes University
14. Lancaster University
15. University of Birmingham
16. Middlesex University
17. University of Derby
18. University of West London City
19. University of London
20. Keele University
21. University of Kent
22. Aston University
23. Birmingham
24. University of Surrey
25. St Mary's University, Twickenham
26. University of Nottingham
27. University of Sussex

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