After an extraordinary few days of to- and fro- for A Level students all over the UK, and tales of grades being reduced as dramatically as 'from 3 Bs to 3 Es', Ofqual has just announced a U-turn on its previously stated position, declaring that the grades put forward by teachers would indeed be awarded to the students, and not those altered in 40% of cases by an algorithm.
The news has been met with relief by students whose 'distress' was acknowledged by Roger Taylor, Chair of Ofqual and who said that he was 'sorry'.
Universities, meanwhile, which had been faced with the need to make individual calls on which students they would accept and whether they were able to wait for the results of potentially lengthy appeals processes, will now once again have a clear basis on which to award places.