A NEW supergrade is being drawn up for the brightest A-level students to save the university admissions system from collapse.

A government review has concluded that the ability range covered by A and B grades at A level is too wide and should be split into A1, A2, B1 and B2. Grades C-E would retain their existing value.

Last year, 21.6 per cent of papers were awarded the top grade, more than double the proportion handed out a decade ago. The proposed A1 grade, similar to the A* used at GCSE, could “reset” the top grade to 1990 levels.

Elite universities, which aim to identify the top 5 to 10 per cent of each year-group, say that the devaluing of the qualification has turned their admissions process into a lottery. Currently, a pupil who scrapes an A grade with a mark of 80 per cent receives parity with one scoring 100 per cent.

Tutors in the most competitive subjects have already moved to introduce separate entrance papers. The tests of logical reasoning, used for applicants to read law and medicine at Oxford, Cambridge and other leading institutions, are designed to detect intellectual potential, in a tacit admission that A levels no longer serve that purpose.

Mike Tomlinson, the former Chief Inspector of Schools leading a review of the 14-19 curriculum, will announce interim findings on Tuesday. The final report will be released in September. Ministers are likely to accept his conclusions. A source close to his working party tells The Times Higher Education Supplement today that Mr Tomlinson will express his concern about the width of grade boundaries next week: final proposals on the sub-division of the top two grades are likely to be included in the final report.

The changes would be incorporated within Mr Tomlinson’s wider plan for A levels and GCSEs to become parts of a school-leavers’ diploma. The new qualification would be marked at entry, foundation, intermediate and advanced levels, depending on the marks achieved in the traditional papers, a dissertation and a number of vocational options.

Although the diploma is unlikely to be introduced fully before the end of the decade, the changes to A level could be brought forward to meet the concerns of admissions tutors.

The 15-member working party is also considering a demand from universities for examination boards to release a detailed breakdown of a candidate’s marks.

Two years ago, The Times reported that Downing Street wanted to set an A* grade at A level, to follow the successful introduction of a top grade at GCSE in 1994.

The move was resisted by Estelle Morris, then the Education Secretary, and by teaching unions. Ms Morris was concerned that the move would “strangle at birth” the Advanced Extension Awards (AEA) being introduced for high-flyers that summer; the unions were concerned about teachers and pupils being placed under pressure to reach the new top grade.

Mr Tomlinson is understood to have rejected the first argument — AEAs have been a flop anyway, with only 7,000 candidates taking them last summer — and he hopes that teachers will be appeased by the moves to broaden the curriculum through the new diploma.

Jane Minto, the director of the Oxford Colleges Admissions Office, said that she was delighted by the proposal. “We have been pushing quite hard for some time for some sort of grade differentiation, especially at the top end.

“I also think that it would be useful to see the unit marks rather than just an A1, A2 grade and so on.”

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