2020 A-Level Results: Chief Education Officer's Letter

August has always been a lucky month for OIC: it is the time we see our hard work yield results. Year on year, we welcome our students into the College and call them in their home countries to pass on the good news: that they will be going to their dream university. Guiding our students to their personal successes is the most important part of our journey as teachers and educators. It is also the time we celebrate the successes of our College. Last year, we learned that OIC became the No.1 A-Level College in the UK – and that 100% of our applicants were headed to medical school. The recognition of our strategic approach to education and my Strategic Global Pathways Curriculum has had all of us honoured, humbled, and determined to live up to our title by working even harder for our brilliant students. This year is unique. In addition to regular school duties, our Year 13 students had to face unprecedented challenges: global pandemic, school closure and remote learning, and finally the cancellation of their A-Level examinations. It is the testament to our college community’s hard work, agility, and incredible resilience that we were not just able to survive, but thrive and succeed – with our students celebrating incredible university admissions results, high-profile internships, and scholarships with the world’s top universities (including the prestigious Jardine Scholarship at the University of Oxford).

Challenges of a Covid-19 Year

As you are all probably now well aware, the government has decided to accept teachers’ predictions for A-Level results. This was a U-turn from their previous decision which was to use a controversial statistical model which did not account for student’s personal growth, preparation, or exam performance. The roller coaster of the last few days (and months during the pandemic) has been unsettling for the entire education sector, but at OIC we are ever more committed to ensuring our students’ ambitions are prioritised. Our entire education model is based on tailoring and personalisation, and in the months and years to come, we will continue to make that the cornerstone of how we work with students to achieve success.

Our key successes

Despite the chaos over the last few weeks, as a college, we have already received our most important metric. Our 2020 university offers speak for themselves: one in three of our applicants got into Oxbridge, and 58,6% of all students were accepted into Oxford, Cambridge, University College London, Imperial College London, and London School of Economics (the so-called G5, or five best UK universities). We have also received 63 medicine offers (70 of our students applied for all degrees) from 26 top medical schools in the world, cementing our reputation as medicine admissions specialists. Please peruse our OIC University Admissions Report 2020 (link) for a detailed breakdown of our graduate destinations.

The most important thing

This continues to be the measure of our success. As long as our students get their dream future out of their A-Level course, and achieve unprecedented admissions victories, we know that we are on the right track. Our heartfelt thanks go out to the parents, guardians, agents, and other friends of the College who have made possible every success of the last six months – your support drives us forward. As we start the academic year 2020/2021, we will continue to work hard for our students’ sake as the UK’s top A-Level college. Yasmin Sarwar Chief Education Officer Oxford International College

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