The vice chancellors of four universities have said they are likely to accept students with T level qualifications.

Speaking at the House of Commons education select committee on Wednesday morning, the vice chancellors of Sheffield Hallam University, the Open University and Nottingham Trent University said they would accept the new technical qualifications, while the vice chancellor of Liverpool University said it “seems likely” it will accept them.

Oxford University’s vice chancellor said the university would “wait and see” before committing to accepting T level students.

Not ‘academically rigorous’ enough

It comes after Imperial College London and University College London told Tes earlier this month that they would not accept T levels at the moment.

A spokesman for Imperial said: “We need to ensure that students are academically able to cope with the rigours of an Imperial degree and we do not believe that T levels provide a suitable preparation for students.”

Tes analysis also showed more than half of Russell Group universities are undecided about whether to accept the new technical qualification or not.

Ucas points

Last week the Federation of Awarding Bodies, the organisation representing technical awarding organisations, said the Department for Education should start work to integrate T levels with the college and university admissions infrastructure.

In their response to the government’s consultation on T levels FAB stated: “Having Ucas points assigned to T levels will ease the progression of learners into degree courses.”

In their response, the Confederation of British Industry said the new technical qualifications should not be rolled out until September 2023 calling on the government to delay the implementation of the new T levels by a year and “take the time to get this right”.

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