Ministers are considering a radical shake-up of the university admissions procedure by delaying applications until after A Level results are announced.

The proposal has been put to education secretary Charles Clarke by his adviser on the subject, according to a report in the Observer on Sunday.

The idea has been floated in order to boost the chances of poorer students applying to the top performing institutions.

Forum Response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the ATL, said: "Any system based on actual rather than predicted grades has to be encouraged.

"A post-qualification system has many advantages for students especially those from a socially disadvantaged background who because of low expectations may not have chosen to apply to a particular university or course as they were not predicted the necessary grades to do so.

"If changes of this nature were made it would throw up a number of clear implications; A Level exams would have to be sat earlier and the university year would have to start at a later date. So whatever is decided has to be worked through extremely carefully to ensure that a students university place is in no way jeopardised."

Forum Response: Universities UK

Diana Warwick, chief executive of Universities UK, said: "Universities UK is interested in the idea [of a post-qualifications admissions system] in principle, but in looking at this regularly we have concerns over the practicalities - which we hope the government's working group on post-qualifications admissions will address.

"We will discuss this issue further with our members and also feed into the public consultation on the recommendations of the admissions taskforce under Professor Steven Schwartz, vice-chancellor of Brunel University."