Mary Curnock Cook is the former head of UCAS, the body that oversees university admissions
12 min listen
As A-level students receive their exam results, Cindy Yu speaks to Isabel Hardman and Mary Curnock Cook who is the former chief executive of UCAS. In a bid to curb recent grade inflation, fewer of the top results have been handed out to students who were the first year group to sit through pandemic style
So now that A-Levels will be judged on teacher-assessed grades (or centre assessed grades) where does that leave us? At the last count, about 55,000 students were given undergraduate places at either their second choice (insurance) or clearing. So that’s 55,000 students whose place at university might be changed now that teacher-assessed grades are being
17 min listen
It’s A-Level results day and much as expected, a large minority of A-Level grades from across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland have been downgraded. For some schools and colleges, more than half of their students have been affected. On the podcast, Cindy Yu talks to Fraser Nelson and Mary Curnock Cook, former head of Ucas
38 min listen
White working class boys consistently perform worse than other demographics in the UK’s education system – why? (00:45) What is it like to be ‘cancelled’? (14:20) And is it time to return to the office? (24:50) With the IEA’s Christopher Snowdon; former Ucas head Mary Curnock Cook; journalist Kevin Myers; the Spectator’s columnist Lionel Shriver;
27 min listen
Mary Curnock Cook is an educationalist and former head of Ucas. On this podcast, she talks about leaving school at 16, how boys suffer from the real gender gap in education, and why it would be ‘ludicrous’ to abolish university tuition fees. Presented by Katy Balls.
