Education desperately needs a shake-up. But not in the way the government is doing it.

It has been announced in The Guardian today that five leading universities are already completely full on all their courses, 9 days before A level results are even published.
This news, as shocking as it may initially seem, does not really come as a surprise when the coalition government's educational amendments are taken into consideration. By slashing the September student intake by 50% - from 20, 000 spaces to 10, 000, they have effectively deprived thousands of the nation's most academically able from fulfilling their dreams.
I understand that we are not living in the healthiest economic climate - to put things rather mildly, but something strikes me as completely unfair when top-achieving students are cast off from university, yet those with lower grades can still get in. The competition for top places has now completely spiralled out of control; such is the severity of the problem that Conservative MP David Willetts has suggested that should a student not secure a place at university, then he or she should consider "starting a business" or "going for an apprenticeship."
These ideas, as well as being absolutely ridiculous and unfair, also appear completely unworkable. How is an 18 year old - most I imagine without any background in business - with a primarily academic background, supposed to simply "start her own business", as Mr. Willetts so casually puts it? Or similarly, would this same individual be confident and happy about starting an apprenticeship? It's unlikely. Because the student has spent the past two years poring over academic textbooks and working extremely hard for those top grades, in order to get to university. To rob a child of her future in such a way at the drop of the hat is frankly unfair and downright mean. Mr. Willetts is not even being practical.
The amount of pressure we are exerting on this generation of students is phenomenal. I thank my lucky stars I wasn't born 10 years later, because education, which in my opinion pretty universally stands as a sad state of affairs in Britain, has been even further messed up now. The new award of an A* grade for those achieving over 90% - designed purely to mark out the 'academic elite' to university admissions tutors is a preposterous, soul-destroying measure which crucifies any remaining scraps of genuine education left remaining. Education is now so geared up to exams and ability-obsessed that we have lost all sight of other markers of intellect and are seeming to forget that there are many different types of intelligence, not to mention qualities, that are also sought after for competitive university courses.
It's no wonder that mental health problems are on the rise in this country. The pressures of the modern world are enough without forcing young people into studying themselves into insanity -and then not even being guaranteed a place at university. It must be completely demoralising for a whole generation.
Of course, these changes have been made without serious thought - because what is such a huge factor that always seems to be overlooked is the examining boards. These can differ drastically which therefore means that a student with 90% with OCR is in no means equivalent to a student with 90% on Edexcel. How can they be, when they don't ask the same questions, or even cover the same syllabus?
My own French exam board contained no French literature. Despite the fact we had to list our examining body on our UCAS forms, when I started at the first university I attended, many staff and students alike seemed very surprised that I'd never studied any French Literature before. Consequently I seemed to struggle a lot more with the course materials than many other students; my 'A' at A level had come from discussing current affairs in France, and no textual analysis or literary criticism whatsoever. I didn't mind learning this 'on the job' as it were, because it's what I expected. But it seems that the admissions tutors themselves did not. And all the time I couldn't help but feel I was still the lucky one - because there was no way anyone could deny that an A on WJEC was easier to come across than an A on AQA. And yet, because no-one seems to know the facts about examining bodies, I didn't even need to try to deny it, because it wasn't an issue.
Perhaps a solution to the problem - as well as re-examining the examining boards process - would be to change the requirements for admissions to all universities. I broadly believe that education should be available to all, but when it comes to Higher Education, it is slightly different. You are entering into an academic institution and selected on your ability. It therefore is only fair to be upfront and honest with people and only admit people who are suitable to the degree programme. But with so many completely suitable candidates being turned away because courses are 'full up', we have to look at students entering 'lower end' institutions with 3 Ds with no problem. There does seem to be an injustice there, and it's not one that makes sense. Perhaps what we need is an approach as with the transfer from GCSEs to A levels - if you do not achieve upwards of a C grade, you simply cannot enter into an academic future. There are many other alternatives; academia is by no means 'the only way forwards'. And while I'm not as unrealistic as David Willetts and would not casually suggest setting up your own business to these people, there are indeed other things that would probably suit these students more, instead of focusing on something which does not appear to be moving them very far forwards.
Something has to be done here. The bottom line is is that things cannot continue to go on in this way, where children are forced to stay on at school until they're 18, and those who were likely to have chosen to anyway then be deprived of their envisaged future because they have not achieved 100% in an exam (but became clinically depressed trying to). The issue of exam boards really needs to be assessed, but most importantly, the most academically minded and hardest working of A level students should get what they deserve; not the other way round.
We are in the process of letting down a generation.